Chapter 1

Jewel was just as much of a troublemaker as her older sister, Zoe. Just in a different way. She was a genius, and inventor whose family was trying to keep her under the radar, mostly with the help of her father, U.S. Marshal officer Jack Carter.

As an infant, a toddler, or even as she was getting older, Jewel would do strange things. If she wasn't inventing, she seemed to be talking to herself... a lot more than other kids did. As she became old enough to start going to school, she invented things in her science classes using what was available to her pre-middle school age level. And her inventions always worked on the first try, but none of her teachers could figure out how it was possible. They all simply figured that she was either up to no good, or too smart for their classes and tried to move her up.

Ten-year-old Jewel was in the back seat of a car with her sister. Their father was driving the car. Jewel sat quietly while Zoe tried everything in her attitude arsenal.

It was nighttime, and raining. Zoe was doing her best to annoy their dad, and it was working. He'd threatened to use pepper spray if she didn't stop.

"Are all cops this angry?" Zoe asked.

"This isn't angry. I was angry at the truck stop when you told the waitress that I touched you funny. Oh, and let's not forget you somehow talking your ten-year-old sister into following you out here, and somehow, the two of you getting separated. We're way past angry. And no ten-year-old should be on her own," Carter said as he looked out the rain covered windshield. The wiper blades removing the droplets just in time to be replaced by more.

The three were seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Road signs hadn't been seen for miles.

"You told him I followed you? Zoe, you came to get me back home before he came after us," Jewel whispered.

"Do you want to be in as much trouble as I am?"

"No," Jewel answered.

"Then be quiet," Zoe said. Her tone told Jewel not to mess with her. Then Zoe went back to talking to their dad. "Will you remind me again why we're not on a plane right now? Oh, that's right. The big, bad marshal's afraid to fly."

"You don't wanna push me right now."

"Look, I'm just saying that if we would've made a left back there-"

"Don't say anything," Carter warned.

"Fine."

Zoe fell back into the seat and leaned against her sister. The two didn't exactly get along, so this was a rare sight. Zoe would run away quite often. Carter had assumed it was because of his marriage failing. Jewel felt like it was because of her.

"It's just funny and all-

"-Seriously, I'll pay you," Carter exclaimed as the car kept moving.

Jewel wanted to admit what she did, but the last time she remembered her sister standing up for her, or even protecting her from something was... She couldn't remember a time that ever happened, and she was trying to decide if she liked how it felt.

She tuned out her father and sister, who were still arguing, until the car crashed without a moment's notice. Still inside the vehicle, they were suspended in mid-air by trees.

Suddenly, she heard Jack fall to the ground and her sister shouting through the window, "Karma's a bitch, huh?"

~***~***~

"For the last time, there is no other us," Carter said as the three walked down the road into a town.

"Other us?" Jewel asked.

"Uh, yeah!" Zoe said. "We passed a car just like ours. Dad was driving and we were in the back seat."

"Um, Zoe," Jewel began. "We were in the back seat. Dad was driving."

"I know what I saw!" Zoe said.

"What you think you saw," Carter replied.

"Can the two of you please stop arguing?" Jewel asked. "I can't take watching it. It's partly why I ran."

"You're right, Jewel," Carter said, only to start an all-new fight between himself and Zoe and his taking Jewel's side, yet again.

~***~***~

The three Carters were now in the town Sheriff's office. A deputy was sitting at her desk, her feet on top of it as she was circling items in the newspaper.

"Can I help you?" The deputy asked as she watched them come in.

"Yeah, me and... Is that coffee?" Jack asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, sorry, we've just been up all night, and I could really use a fix."

"Does this look like Starbucks?"

As Carter was apologizing and introducing himself to the deputy whose last name was Lupo, Jewel watched as Zoe started to quietly back out of the office.

Jewel was about to chase after her sister when she heard someone being taken down to the floor and someone else saying, "Gun! Move and you'll spend the rest of your days sucking meals through a straw!"

"Dad!" Jewel exclaimed as Carter spoke with his face forced into the floor.

"I'm a U.S. Marshal!"

"Right," Lupo replied, as she didn't believe him.

"Check my coat pocket!"

Lupo did and removed Carter's badge from his coat pocket. She let him up. He looked around the office as he rose to his feet. He was relieved to see that at least one kid stayed behind, but the other was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Zoe?" He asked.

"What's a Zoe?"

"Did somebody lose this?" An unfamiliar voice asked Carter as Zoe was brought back inside. "She says her name is Shania." Based on the man's uniform, Carter figured this was the sheriff. The man took a look in Jewel's direction. There was a flash of recognition in his eye that didn't escape Carter's, or Zoe's, eye.

Carter couldn't believe the on-the-fly alias Zoe had chosen for herself.

Jewel didn't hear anymore as she walked closer to the cell. She was fascinated by what she was able to see. Her eyes were seeing the bones of the structure. They saw the wires that powered the cell door, the math that went into creating the cell itself. There was just something about science that made her happy. It was her realm of expertise.

She loved working with lab kits or the things she brought home with her from school so she could experiment. When she was seven, she'd made an arc reactor from the Iron Man comics, but her results and theory were never published to the scientific community.

"So, what can we do for you, Marshal?" The sheriff, whose last name was Cobb, asked after handing a mug of coffee to Carter.

"Well, I was transporting these two back to L.A. when we had a little bit of an accident."

Cobb knew what Zoe meant when she said they ran into themselves, but he also seemed to know that Carter didn't believe her and tried to keep Zoe from sounding crazy.

"So, what can I do for you, now?"

"Actually, I was hoping that you could hang onto the kids while I went and dealt with the car. This one," Carter said as he went to bring Zoe toward the cell, "needs to be in there."

"Well, I don't see why not," Cobb said. "Jo?"

Deputy Lupo pushed a button that opened the cell door. Jewel continued to watch everything with the fascination of a scientist watching their work come to life.

"You cannot be serious! You're just gonna lock me up here?" Zoe griped as she was closed off by the door.

"Yeah." Carter was clearly annoyed and not taking any crap his oldest child was giving him. Then he turned to see Jewel studying anything tech related. "And I'll be back for this one, but she needs to be kept away from technology until then. I'd rather not say why."

"It's okay, Dad. I activated my I'm grounded device. I'll get a static shock if I touch any tech until you put the code in," Jewel assured him. To prove she wasn't lying, she touched a lamp and received a shock to her finger.

While Jo placed a call to the only mechanic in town, Cobb took the time to ask about Jewel's invention.

"She has an I'm grounded device?"

"Yeah. Built it herself. The kid's beyond genius, and she's only ten," Carter began before stopping himself from saying too much. "It gives her a shock if she touches anything with an electrical current, like a car, TV, etc, and sends a message to her parent's cell phones. Perfect for a kid who's grounded from those things."

~***~***~

"And why exactly did you insist on bringing me to an active crime scene, Sheriff?" Jewel asked. "I got shocked the whole ride to Henry's station. And don't say it's payback for hacking your office computer. Which, by the way, if I did do that, it would have been the easiest job ever. My dad won't be happy I'm here."

"Relax, Jewel. We brought you because the Marshal said he'd be back for you and he has to stop at Henry's station after they pick his car up," Jo said.

"Well, I guess I should thank you for pretending you don't know me."

Jewel left Jo and Cobb to search with the town for the boy they said went missing. She wanted to stay behind, see what might have been missed by eyes that thought they knew what they're doing.

"What are you doing here?" She heard from behind.

"Sheriff Cobb said that I might as well come with them since you'll be here."

"And Zoe?"

"They think she's annoying, and Deputy Lupo has her on two strikes."

"That sounds about right. You got your scanner in that bracelet?" Carter whispered.

"You got the glasses so no one else sees the thermal imaging?" Jewel asked as her way of answering. "Okay. I'll just need you to put in your parental override and we'll see if anyone is actually missing."

Carter took Jewel's wrist and typed his passcode into the bracelet's digital access panel. He then took out a pair of sunglasses that showed him a thermal image of an RV that was covered by a tarp and taped off with crime scene tape.

"You do know you're not going under that tarp, right?"

"I may be ten, Dad, but I do have a concept of death as well as the molecular breakdown of evidence and how too many people in one area can cause the degradation to occur at faster rates, contaminating or losing evidence in the process."

"Okay, Jewel. Turn it off. Someone's in there, but I'm not going to check it out until you turn your bracelet back on and show me it's working."

"How about I just turn it on, and you trust that it's working?"

"No."

"Dad, we're at a gas station, standing above an underground fuel tank. I think you'd be better off trusting me. I'm not usually the runaway," Jewel said, reminding him of what he almost caused.

Carter changed his mind as he handed the glasses to Jewel, then said, "Not usually... the runaway. Yeah, we'll be revisiting that when I come back out."

Jewel wasn't thrilled about that as she had let a secret slip.

~***~***~

"Looking for something?" a voice said from behind Carter. "You know you're disturbing an active crime scene?"

"Well, actually, I'm investigating an active crime scene. Jack Carter, U.S. Marshal."

"Allison Blake, Department of Defense."

"I didn't see that coming."

"Well, now that we're done with the introductions, Mr. Carter-"

"Well, actually, it's Marshal Carter, but you can call me Jack," Carter said as he climbed aboard the RV.

"Hey, I don't like to repeat myself."

"Yet something tells me you're going to. Wow, you see, I've seen some strange stuff. This is why the D.O.D. is out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"I'm not at liberty to say."

"Come on, Miss Blake, we're on the same team."

"That's Agent Blake, Marshal, and we're not even in the same league. This is way out of your jurisdiction."

The back-and-forth went on until the missing boy was located inside bench in the RV and Agent Blake and Carter were no longer behind the tarp.

"How did you know he was in there?"

"You watched me investigate the scene, Agent Blake."

"I did, but it seemed as though you already knew he was in there, and you were simply putting on a show when I went in."

Carter couldn't bring himself to answer her. He didn't know what was going to happen to Jewel if he said anything about her inventions. After all, Allison was working for the D.O.D. And as a federal agent, she was required to report such things.

He, himself, was required as a law enforcer, but he never could bring himself to do anything without knowing what Jewel's future would hold.

~***~***~

Agent Allison Blake drove Carter and Jewel to a place called Barlowe's Bed & Breakfast. When she came to a stop, she said, "Well, this is it."

Carter looked out the windows to see the building. It wasn't what he'd expected.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing."

"You didn't think that I was taking you to my place. Because I'll tell you right now, this isn't Madison County, and you're definitely not Clint Eastwood."

Jewel rolled her eyes at the exchange as she unbuckled her seat belt and left the car. As Carter replied to Allison's comment, he discreetly touched a button on his watch that sent a shock to Jewel's bracelet.

She didn't jump, just in case, Allison, or someone else, was watching. But she did stop walking toward the porch.

"You know, Agent Blake," Carter said as his passenger door closed. "Just because you've dropped the subject, doesn't mean that I have."

"Marshal, whatever you think is going on with us, trust me, it's not."

"I was talking about the RV."

"I knew that!" Allison called from her vehicle. Then she back up and pulled out of the driveway.

Carter put a hand on Jewel's shoulder as the two kept walking toward the bed & breakfast.

"Read between the lines much?" Jewel asked.

"Aren't you a little young to know about that stuff?" Carter asked.

"Please. I'm a ten-year-old genius pretending to be dumb so I can stay with the kids my own age at school."

"That's not very comforting."

"How these people found out about me, I'll never know. Unless Zoe said something to one of her teachers."

"Speaking of which," Carter said as he knocked on the door. "You said something about our arguing being only part of the reason you ran."

"Oh. You caught that."

"Yeah, I did. So, what happened? Who ran away first?"

"I did. Zoe came looking for me so you wouldn't have another kid to be disappointed in. Her words, not mine. Another part of this story is that, via Mom's e-mail address, I received a challenge. I wasn't the only one to get this challenge. But I was the only one to get this far. That's why it seemed like Sheriff Cobb knew me."

"Really?" He knocked again.

"Yeah. The contestants weren't supposed to get past Cobb or Jo. We were only supposed to get to their office. The challenge was issued by some government facility, and I wasn't about to spend time in jail for hacking into the government's secure networks. I wouldn't do something that stupid."

"Anything done illegally is stupid," Carter said.

"Says the U.S. Marshal who is keeping his daughter's genius, and inventions, as quiet as he can so she's not taken away by a government facility," Jewel countered.

"It's not a free pass, but your point is well taken." No one had answered the door, so Carter opened it, and they walked in, Jewel behind Carter. "Hello? Hello? Anybody here?"

They passed a staircase and went into a back room that looked out into a large back yard that was semi-equipped with a chopper pad. Jewel was the only one to see a woman coming inside through the back door while Carter kept looking out the very large widow, watching a helicopter rise into the sky.

"You must be the Marshal," the woman said.

Carter turned around as she spoke, bumping into Jewel who was backing up so that she was closer to him.

"That was fast."

"Small town, big mouths. I'm Beverly Barlowe," Beverly said, extending her hand.

"Jack Carter," he said, returning the gesture. "My daughter, Jewel... The helicopter there, was that..?"

Beverly let it slip when she said some of her clients, not guests, needed a certain level of discretion.

"Well, you two look exhausted," Beverly said as she led the way to a room.

The room had a large bed that Jewel couldn't help but fall on top of as soon as she saw it. And she did just that.

"Let's get you settled in," Beverly said as she lay the candles that were in the mantle.

"Uh-huh," Carter said to Jewel. "You're sleeping on the couch."

"Why?" Jewel asked as her eyes closed and she pretended to fall asleep.

"Call it punishment for running away," was Carter's answer.

Beverly asked if Carter's wife was going to be joining them. It took a moment for him to realize she had noticed the wedding ring on his finger.

"My wife?"

"Not likely. They're separated," Jewel said. She was sad about the situation, but she wasn't upset about it like her sister was. She'd gone so far as to accept the possibility of divorce when he told them he was moving out.

"Was it the sex?" Beverly asked rather suddenly. Carter didn't expect to hear the question and quickly went to cover Jewel's ears in case this conversation continued down that road. He was glad he did, but he wished he didn't have to.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, it's a common problem in long-term relationships. People get bored, they want to experiment sexually, and they don't know how to express their needs."

"Well, not that sharing my sex life with a total stranger and talking about it in front of my ten-year-old daughter, doesn't sound like loads of fun... at the moment, our needs are a nap and a shower." Carter's hands were still covering Jewel's ears.

Beverly left them alone and Carter took Jewel's hand, pulling her up off the bed.

"I'm gonna turn this thing off so you can go shower. But it goes back on as soon as you're back in your clothes, okay."

Jewel nodded; her head turned away so she couldn't see as Carter typed his code. Neither one seemed to notice that someone might have been listening in on them.

Carter slept while Jewel showered. He didn't seem to worry about her as much as he did Zoe. He didn't really have to. She only ran away once in her life and gave a very Jewel-like reason. She didn't even have to tell him what subject matter the challenge was for her to accept it. He already knew it had to be science related.

After spending twenty minutes in the shower and getting dressed, Jewel turned her device back on. She crept as quietly as she could over to the couch that was deemed her bed from the moment they walked into the room.

"Did you turn it back on?" Carter asked in a sleepy haze.

To answer him, Jewel touched the lamp.

"Ow!" She exclaimed as the buzzing sound of a static shock came to Carter's ear.

~***~***~

Carter and Jewel stood outside the Sheriff's office. Carter was looking at the surrounding area, his eyes landing on the granite statue of Archimedes.

"What the hell?" He asked.

"Archimedes," a voice said from below. It belonged to a young kid who was writing a math equation in chalk on the sidewalk.

Jewel read the equation while Carter continued to speak with the boy.

"Excuse me?"

"Greek mathematician. Discovered hydrostatics. Eureka! Get it?

"Not really. No."

"Where did he learn this equation? He's figured out how to reverse the probability of two—"

She didn't feel herself being tugged in the direction of the door, nor did she hear the conversation end as she was too wrapped up in this kid's scientific discovery. All she knew was that the kid and his equation were getting further away from her.

"You are in big trouble!" Zoe said as she saw the two of them enter. "Just wait until the judge hears that you kept a minor locked up all night."

"Yeah, here," Carter replied as he kicked a waste basket toward her. "File a complaint... Deputy, where's the Sheriff?"

Jewel tuned everything out as she went back to studying the facility. She couldn't explain it. There was just something about this building that felt different to her.

She was so engrossed that she didn't hear Carter telling her it was time to go. He had to tug on her arm again to gain her attention.

Originally, they had gone back to the crime scene to check up on the progress of Carter's car, but a dog led them to a field behind the garage. Normally, a field with cattle wouldn't have been a surprise. However, the cattle had been petrified, covered in white-hot ash. A part of one cow was missing, allowing Carter and Jewel to see its insides. Neither one knew what they were looking at.

Carter burned himself on an ash covered tree, and Jewel leaned in closer to each and every thing she walked past in order to see its chemical make-up.

What Jewel remembered next was waking up inside a white cell with a strong clear door, and no one in there with her.

"Hey! Anybody! Hello!" She tried calling out. "Is anyone out there." No one was answering her. She looked at the logo that was painted on the wall across from her cell.

G.D.

"This can't be happening. How did they find me?"

"You passed our test," a man said through the glass.

"How? I ran away from home to keep you from finding me. I didn't want to be here, away from my family."

"Yes. Yes, you did run. But we found you anyway. And I must say that hiding in the subways, you came about... this close to it working," the man said as he held his thumb and index finger so close together that they might as well have been touching.

"But I also could have chosen to take the challenge. Either way I would have wound up here no matter what I chose to do," Jewel said. "So the question is, how did you figure out my level of intelligence. I did my best to keep a low profile."

"One of your teachers was sent by us. We were expecting them to find another teacher or professor that would have wanted to come and work for G.D. but they found you instead."

"I knew I was the only one to receive that e-mail... How long do you plan on keeping me here? Where's my dad?"

"You weren't brought in with anybody."

"Yeah, I gathered as much when I woke up in a glass cell all by myself. You didn't answer my other question. How long do you plan on keeping me here? Why do you want me?"

"I have my reasons," he answered, still not answering her other question. He then spoke to a younger man who was standing beside him. "Have her taken her to Section Five. Security will take over when you get there. The new director will want to meet her when he comes in next week."

"Yes, sir."

"And have the techs see if they can get that bracelet off her wrist. We need to dismantle it, see how it works so we can use it for our benefit."

It clicked why the facility wanted her. They wanted her research. Her inventions.

"Only one person knows how to take this off. Me. And that's after one of my parents puts in their parental override."

She became silent when both men disappeared. Metal walls came crawling down the glass ones, making her invisible to those around her, and ready for transport.

Jewel was taken to the facility's Section Five via the large metal box. She was able to out, but no one could see in. The doors to Section Five were open until she saw Carter standing in front of them.

"I guess that explains Fort Knox," Jewel heard Carter say.

"He can't hear you," a voice whispered, stopping her from thinking she might somehow get Carter's attention.

The doors quickly closed just as Carter looked toward her, but all he saw was a giant metal box.

~***~***~

G.D.'s Section Five was set aside strictly for military projects. No one knew what was in there except for the people with S-5 clearance.

"You never told me if my daughter's missing. And I don't plan on going home until I find her," Carter said as he and Allison continued walking through the halls of the facility. They were on their way to meet the current director, Professor Warren King.

"Marshal, this is Professor King. His specialty is trying to locate the Point of Origin," Allison informed.

"Origin of what?"

"Everything. Life, the universe. It all had to start somewhere. Precisely where is what I intend to find out," King said as he came down a set of stairs that was behind Carter.

"Professor Warren King, Marshal Jack Carter," Allison introduced. "Professor King is a Nobel laureate and noted astrophysicist."

"Wow, well, I'm captain of my division softball team," Carter said, realizing the professor wasn't impressed. "It sounded better in my head... well, before I get even more involved with this case, I have one question."

"And that would be..."

"Have you seen a little girl? She's about ten, wearing a rather unique bracelet. She's been missing ever since your dog catcher shot us with tranq darts earlier today."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," King said.

"Really? Because she's my daughter. And I intend to find her before I leave."

~***~***~

The sound of Carter's voice came through Jewel's bracelet. She knew he was looking for her. But the probability of her going home wasn't looking good. The director of Global Dynamics lied about knowing where she was.

Static shocks kept zapping her where something in the electric cell touched her since her bracelet was still active.

A flash of light crossed over her eyes that didn't come from any light source. Jewel loses her eyelids. The light gave her a piercing headache.

"Welcome home," a voice whispered to her.

"Sooo... you're speaking to me, again?" Jewel asked aloud. "The last time you spoke to me, you said the test was a sham, and that I should run. Now you're welcoming me home. This isn't home! This is a nightmare that I thought you were keeping away from me. But why should I expect you to care? I'm just a kid who looks like she's crazy, talking to herself. And you're the inaudible voice of an artifact that, at the moment, only talks to me."

Jewel looked outside her glass cell walls to see people in lab coats, tablets in their hands. One person was running toward an elevator.

"They need you."

"No. They want to study me." Jewel turned her attention to the scientists. "How much is the D.O.D. paying you to babysit? Go away. research or not, I'm entitled to some privacy."

She wasn't expecting an answer, and the voice told her she wasn't going to get one.

"They want you because you can talk to me. You can tell them things that would take centuries to learn after they bring me there."

The artifact was coming to Global.

No wonder they were going to take me whether or not I took that stupid test.

"I know why you want me," she said, melodically. "Something's gonna be brought here reeaaallll soon."