Omega Path: Book Summary
After leaping out of Strongbow's laboratory, the group find themselves separated from one another. The Members find themselves witnessing pivotal moments in history.
Domi finds herself in a bunker at the end of World War 2. She watches as Hitler enters the bunker followed by a man wearing a colonels uniform. They talk about how he is going to escape due to the Archons influence. The colonel pulls out a pistol and executes him. She finds herself pulled away.
Brigid finds herself at Rosewell New Mexico on July 12th, 1947. She can see the wreakage of the alien craft and the military gathered around it. It is very similar to the craft that was below the city in the Gobi desert. She floats into a tent and sees the same person that Domi saw talking to an Airforce Colonel. She finds herself being pulled away as the man that is with the colonel seems to spot her.
Kane finds himself in Texas. He witnesses six shots ring out and the death of President John F. Kennedy. He spots the same man that both Brigid and Domi had seen in their separate jumps. The man has co-ordinated the assassins, and hears him tell one of his fellow conspirators that Lee Harvey Oswald was trapped inside the book depository. Kane learns that the other shootists are on their way to the airport. As with the others, Kane finds himself being drawn away from the scene.
In the basement of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, Grant appears. He discovers that it is January 19, the day before the skydark. He watches as the man that has been at all four pivotal moments in recent history inform the soviet ambassador that his family are dead, then the man kills him as well, setting the timer on the warhead.
After the death of the ambassador, the man turns to the invisible Grant and informs him that he has been expecting him. He tells grant that his name is C.W. Thrush. He laughs, letting grant know there is nothing he can do to prevent the upcoming nuclear holocaust.
Enraged, Grant is pulled away and back to his own time,
In Cerberus, the group all arrive more or less intact after the jump from England. The Mat Trans nearly blows due to the unusual nature of the jump. Everyone is taken to receive the medical attention they need.
Kane is the last one to awaken and he discovers that two days have passed. The others inform him that Lakesh is gone and that he might be in the hands of Salvo. He is mad enough to kill the old man when he learns that they have transmitters embedded in their flesh, in the shape of the Archon symbol. He decides that they are simply going to leave Lakesh to Salvo's mercies. If the base is attacked, they'll use the mat trans and abandon it.
When he discovers that Brigid plans to mount a rescue party, he is determined to stop her, even if it means shooting her in the leg. He confronts her as she is getting ready. They share their experiences from the jump. She tells him they have to get Lakesh back so he can analyze the data they gained in the jump.
She figures that operation Chronos is somehow responsible for the holocaust and that they might, just might be able to prevent it from happening. Very reluctantly, Kane agrees with her. She asks him if he really would shoot her in the leg to stop her. He wouldn't have.
In Cobaltville, Lakesh has suffered for nearly three days at the hands of Salvo and Pollard. Salvo has been unable to break him. The man knows that Lakesh is dying so he orders Pollard to go fetch a medic. While the man is gone, he wonders what he would do if the Baron called Lakesh to a meeting of the trust.
The next day the members of the group are preparing to rescue Lakesh. Kane, Grant, Domi and one of the other exiles, a woman named Dafoe arm up and initiate the jump process so they can arrive in Cobaltville.
Salvo finds himself summond to speak to the Baron. During the talk he learns that Kane is his Fraternal twin. It's something he suspected all along. The baron then informs him that he knows that Salvo has orchestrated everything, the initiation into the trust of Kane, the framing of Abrams and so on. It turns out that Abrams wasn't executed after all and the baronial guards shock Salvo into submission, then drug him.
He is removed from the baron's presence and is taken to a room where a group of attendants cut away his clothing and hang him up. The baron has him in his personal medical suite and is going to perform surgery on him.
Kane and the others arrive in the private gateway. The jump was very easy for all and Kane finds himself still standing. They leave the gateway and run into a pair of Baronial guards. They are unable to bluff their way past them and are forced to fight. They soon discover that the guards are bio-engineered beings, and are incredibly tough, but not very bright.
They find Salvo just as the surgery is about to begin. They kill the three attendants. Salvo manages to talk Kane into helping him. They remove the devices from Salvo. It turns out that it was a memory recorder and that the baron was going to look over the man's memories. The attendants were actually robots.
They force Salvo to got with them to help free Lakesh. The group head down to level E and Dafore, with Grant, head to grab Lakesh. Pollard suspects something is up when they arrive to get Lakesh, so grant takes him down, breaking the man's ribs and his hand, then knocks him out cold.
On the way back to the mat trans they encounter a group of Magistrates who try to stop them. Grant kills two and wounds a third. They finally manage to catch up to Kane and Domi.
As they get closer to their destination, a large group of a dozen magistrates stops them. The Baron demands their surrender. Kane takes Lakesh and pretends he has taken him hostage, and forces the Baron to let them pass.
At the gateway they find the baron is probably going to force them to another ville. Domie takes the Syne and attaches it to the control panel. She's shot and nearly killed. Grant risks his life to rescue the albino girl. The Syne overrides the baron's control and they jump to the Cerberus redoubt.
Brigid is worried when Auerbach brings in a medical trolly and he tells her that it is Domi who is badly wounded, worse than Lakesh. When the group arrives, Brigid is very surprised to see Salvo. She quotes to him what he called her, then knocks him on his ass. Both Salvo and Kane are surprised by her actions.
Lame demands that Salvo tell her what he discovered about them. Salvo refuses and only insults her. Kane flips out and beats him badly. Brigid then is able to calm him down. Kane is going to take Salvo to see Balam before he takes him down to the medical section.
Banks is bored and isn't sure how to handle it when Kane barges in and slams Salvo against the wall separating Balam from the rest of the redoubt. Salvo is overcome by the horror of it. He had no idea what he was really serving, had no idea what to expect. He begs Kane to kill him.
Domi is going to require extensive reconstructive surgery to repair the damage she suffered when she was shot. She is sleeping when Brigid goes to visit Lakesh. The old man is weeping because of everything that has happened. Everything.
Brigid describes what happened to them when they jumped back from England. Lakesh is ecstatic and has to see the information for himself. Despite Dafoe's objections, he has Brigid wheel him to a computer terminal where he can analyze the data.
Lakesh and Brigid talk about the way Kane has been acting over the past few months. It's Dafoe's professional opinion that he is starting to suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome. She wants the old man to talk to Kane, to see if he can bring some sense to the man.
At this time Salvo is in a padded cell on the lowest level of the redoubt. They left him with nothing that he could use to kill himself with.
The old man asks that both Grant and Kane are to be brought to him so they can talk.
Despite his anger and reservations, Kane listens to Lakesh. It turns out that Lakesh is responsible for Kane and Salvo being brothers. He tinkered with genetic engineering decades before, in the attempt to create soldiers to help him in his war against the directive.
Lakesh then gets them to describe their encounters while they were returning to the redoubt. Lakesh theorizes that the man might be what he calls a chrononaught, someone who travels through time to important events in history.
The surprising fact is that with all the data that Lakesh gained from the transducer, he is certain that he can modify the gateway so they can use it to time travel and possibly prevent the holocaust from occurring.
Two days have passed and the modification to the gateway has been completed. They need to test it, and send back a probe about ninety five years in the past. It succeeds and they accidentally intercept another chron jump. They bring Doc Tanner from the past into the future, and send him home right away. The probe returns but the video portion of the probe failed.
After the test Kane goes to talk to Salvo, and tells him exactly what he thinks about them being brothers. Salvo doesn't understand why he threw everything away for the woman, Brigid, so Kane lays it out for him. Then he tells Salvo that he has a choice. Join them, or die. Simple as that.
The next day it turns out that Lakesh spent the night preparing a video tape for them to give to his younger self back in the past, in the hope that they might be able to prevent the holocaust. Kane shocks the hell out of everyone when he tells them that they are going to take Salvo back to the past with them.
They can't believe it, but he is firm on his decision and leaves no room for argument. With that, they all prepare to head back into the past. Brigid ends up looking like a fashion model, and both Kane and Salvo are dressed to kill. They do take their weapons with them.
The jump is complete and they find themselves back in the past, on new years eve 2000. The redoubt they arrived in was located below the world trade center. The redoubt is empty except for a single guard who they easily bluff by using the information and ID that they obtained from Lakesh.
They are all awed by the sights and sounds they encounter, as well as the sheer number people. Even in the populated villes, they have never seen such a crush of humanity. Salvo is approached by a hooker and it turns out she's a decoy. They easily thwart the robbery attempt.
Passing a television, they discover that they are in the right year, but the wrong timeline. They see the president and know that things didn't go quite the way they hoped it would.
Over diner, they read a large number of tabloids and papers and figure out the history of this timeline. They compare the differences they know with their own timeline. A waiter brings them drinks from a man seated at the bar. It's Thrush and a pair of MIB's. They talk briefly and Thrush lets them know that they are free to return to the redoubt and return to their own time. After all, no matter what they do, it won't change the course of history.
All three leave the restaurant and head towards the theater where they are to find the young Lakesh. On the way they have a run in with a black car that races out of the ally and attacks. It wasn't meant to harm, just frighten.
Salvo takes the distraction to take a pregnant woman hostage. The others are forced to let him go. Despite the set back, they continue to the theater.
They get past the guards at the theater and find that Salvo beat them there. He has taken Lakesh hostage and they all head up to the rooftop. Thrush shows up. Salvo tries to force Kane to his knees, to humiliate the man before he kills him. Thrust calls up a helicopter. The arrival distracts Salvo and Kane attacks, shooting him. He falls and is electrocuted. There is no way that he could survive.
Thrush does the unexpected. He kills Lakesh. He then explains that he had to due to the fact that shortly Lakesh would cause a temporal disaster that would bring chaos unlike the world has ever known. Kane shoots the man several times and discovers that he is a hybrid of machine, human, and possibly Danaan as well.
Thrush has the upper hand and Kane is forced to let him go. Before leaving Thrush takes Salvo's corpse with him.
Kane and Brigid look over the city and share a kiss before they head to the redoubt and head back to their own time.
End of Omega Path