The Parallel Conspiracy: A Mystery Adventure of Alternate Worlds

by Richard Lori

 

  Fuller drove home the plunger of the syringe, injecting a powerful barbiturate into the startled man. When he recovered from the initial shock and started to yell, Jen clamped her hand over his mouth. He struggled for several more seconds but soon slumped over when the drug took hold.

  The young man had let Jen into the room under the ruse of being a new neighbor who was interested in getting better acquainted with him. Once he turned to let her enter, she had grabbed him around both arms and held tight while Fuller injected him.

  Fuller hurried to the door of the room across the hallway, opened it and called in a low voice to Sue and Bechler, “Okay, we’re set.”

  He grabbed a crate just inside the door, swung it around then rushed back to the room where Jen was. Following behind, Bechler groaned as he hauled a large Gatling gun into the room. Sue, not able to handle a heavy crate she was carrying, dropped it with a thud in the middle of the hallway.

  Fuller shot back through the door and whispered, “Forget it. I’ll take it. Help Bechler get the gun set up.”

  He hoisted the heavy crate and followed her back into the room. He and Jen made several more trips to the other apartment for the gun tripod and more crates before finishing the transfer.

  Fuller rested to catch his breath. Feeling a twinge in his back, he knew he would be sorry for the heavy exertion in the morning. He watched Sue and Bechler at the large double window at the front of the room as they set the gun onto the tripod. They had already screwed the mounting into the thick wooden floor so it would not move once the battle started. He glanced over at Jen. He watched while she unpacked three cylinders of nitrous oxide and ran a tube under the apartment’s entrance door.

  They had spent the days after Jen had returned from her scouting mission in preparation for today. Using the interface cable and adapter that Bechler had built for that purpose, they downloaded the floor plans, photos and video that Jen had stored in her memory. Once they reviewed the information and planned the assault, they transported all the equipment for the attack.

  The room they were in was across the street from the palace compound, and it would give them a clear shot of the main gate. Since a tenant occupied the apartment, Cassius had rented the room across the hall as a staging area.

  The group had spent the last two nights relaying the heavy weapons and ammunition they would use. Bechler transported the equipment to the barn, Sue relayed it to the alleyway in this universe and Jen, Cassius and Fuller relayed it by ox cart to the staging points. In addition to this location, they transported a mortar and several cases of rounds to a hidden weapons cache a few miles outside the city. The cache was on the border of a farm field where they could take clear shot back into the city.

  The plan was not to pummel the city with artillery but to zero in on the palace by use of laser-guided rounds. Cassius would fire the mortars, while Sue stayed in the room they were now working in, painting a laser beam onto the targets. There were several types of rounds to choose from, most of which were low power and would be used to generate noise and confusion.

  The Gatling gun was on a motorized tripod that would swing the gun back and forth across the front of the palace. Sue would be able to fire it by a remote control while she aimed the laser and shot out the window with a particle gun. The ammunition consisted of all tracer rounds to provide a light show for the guards when they came out to fight.

  The plan was for Sue and Cassius to create as much noise and confusion as possible to make the guards think the palace was under siege. This should empty out the barracks of troops, allowing Jen, Bechler and Fuller to enter through the escape tunnel. They would proceed to the rooms of the royal family, gather them up and return through the tunnel to a wagon waiting outside the bakery.

  Eventually the guards would realize the gunfire was coming from Sue and would circle to the back of the building. They had planned for this though. The hallway would be flooded with nitrous oxide to knock unconscious anyone attempting to get to the apartment. Upon the others of her group leaving, Sue would shut the door and seal it airtight with spray foam insulation to prevent any gas from finding its way to her.

  The building was made of solid stone so was a virtual fortress. Although the palace guards had automatic rifles, they would not penetrate the walls, which would only leave the ability to shoot at Sue through the window. She would remain back in the shadows to avoid a clear shot, and she wore full body armor to protect against ricochets. The main concern would be hand grenades, which they hoped the palace guards did not have. In the event they did, they had planned for this too.

  “All set with the Gatling gun,” said Bechler as he came up to Fuller.

  “Good. Should we make sure the radios work?” Fuller asked.

  They donned headsets and helmets and each went through a check to ensure they could all hear each other. This left only Cassius, which Fuller called out to in Latin.

  “Are you able to hear me, Cassius?” he called.

  “Yes, Lord, I do. I could hear you talk in the tongue of the gods but did not know if you were speaking to me.”

  “Just stay ready, and Jen or I will instruct you when to do something.”

  “Aye, Lord, that I will.”

  Fuller looked at Bechler. “He’s ready.”

  “Let’s go then. Jen, you want to grab our friend here?” Bechler asked.

  “Yes,” responded Jen, throwing the unconscious tenant over her shoulder.

  When they closed the hall door behind them, there was a hiss as Sue sealed the cracks with spray foam. He could just make out the yellow foam oozing from under the door in the faint light of the hall. They continued down the stairs and dumped the man in the back alley, pouring wine on his face and body. Anyone finding him would think he had passed out from too much drink. While they could have killed him, they had agreed to minimize harm to innocent civilians.

  As they moved along the dark alley, Fuller stumbled and hit the ground with a slap. Jen, who was behind, rushed to help.

  She whispered, “Put on your night-vision goggles.”

  He could feel his face flush when he realized his error. “Oh yeah. I forgot them.”

  He pulled the glasses on and turned towards Jen. Her eyes were able to detect both the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums, so she did not need night-vision equipment. He turned around and saw Bechler looking at him with his goggles already on. The agent said nothing of Fuller’s mistake, only turning and continuing forward along the alley.

  When they reached the end of the alleyway, they turned at the first cross street back towards the road the palace’s front gate was on. From there they proceeded to the compound entrance, hugging close to the wall to keep out of sight of the guardhouse window. Bechler motioned for the others to stop then continued forward alone on hands and knees. When he reached the spot under the window, he planted an explosive charge and started the timer.

  He was inching his way back and had almost reached them when Fuller heard a man’s voice call from within the walled compound. Bechler froze in place, hands and knees still hard to the cobblestone road. Fuller, likewise frozen, felt the light touch of Jen’s hand on his back while she inched her way around him. He swiveled his head to the right and saw her hand, particle gun ready to fire.

  Fuller looked back towards Bechler. His body tensed when he saw two men emerge from the guardhouse door and turn their gaze towards the three of them. He squinted to prepare for the flash when Jen fired her gun but opened them again when the burst never came. He realized he was only seeing the men because of the night-vision goggles. While the guards were visible from the amplified light through the goggles, the three of them were undetectable to the guards.

  The guards were still talking as they turned in the opposite direction, but Fuller could not hear what they were saying. Jen drew her lips close to his ear and whispered. “They are changing shifts and only came out for fresh air.”

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sp; Fuller nodded but otherwise stayed as still as possible, waiting for the men to return to the building. It was almost ten minutes before the guards walked off the street, and by then Bechler had inched his way back to Jen and him.

  “Help me up,” he whispered.

  Fuller grabbed his hand and pulled, Bechler moaning when his knees cracked. He stretched his legs to loosen out the stiffness then whispered, “Let’s get moving. That damn charge is going to blow any second.”

  They hurried to the end of the street and around the corner, Bechler now taking up the rear as he tottered along on his sore legs. They proceeded to the bakery but paused when the loud detonation of the charge thundered out, lighting the sky throughout the city.

   

  *****

 

   

  Sue aimed the particle gun at the guard on the left, waiting for him to advance on Bechler before firing. When they turned away from him, she relaxed, knowing they had not seen him in the shadows.

  She had busied herself with final preparations after Fuller left. She squirted foam in every crack around the door to seal it then eased open the valves of the nitrous cylinders to fill the hall with gas. The three tanks connected via a manifold to a regulator valve so that all would drain at the same rate.

  After she heard the nitrous hissing from the tanks, she placed the night-vision wear over her eyes and dowsed the work light she had been using. With the room in darkness, she pulled the cloth cover from the window to sight the Gatling gun to sweep its fire across the gate.

  Her final preparation had been to get several napalm grenades ready to lob out the window. Her body armor would protect her from any bullets that would make it through the window, but she would need to keep anyone from getting close enough to toss in grenades. The napalm would provide a temporary fire barrier in the street, and the heavy stone construction of the building should keep it from spreading inside. Bechler had assured her that this particular type of grenade was able to burn for over five minutes, so he suggested she keep a stream of them flowing out the window.

  Sue had just staged several of the firebombs below the window when she heard a man call out from across the street. Her head snapped up. She saw a guard had exited the main entrance of the palace and was walking towards the guardhouse on the left side of the gate. She looked down the street to make sure Bechler had finished planting the bomb but could see him still crouched down, making his way to the others.

  Movement caught her eye when a second man exited from the small shack, and the two guards converged in the compound yard. They stood talking for a moment in the pool of light streaming from the open door of the small building. After a few moments, they walked to the gate and exited onto the street.

  Her pulse quickened and her mind swirled with thoughts of the danger her friends were in. Both guards carried rifles, and they would open fire as soon as they suspected anything was wrong. If they did this, other guards would be alerted and the fight would start earlier than planned. She pulled the particle gun from her belt and aimed at the man closest to Bechler, waiting to see what they would do.

  When the two turned in the opposite direction, her heart slowed, but she stayed ready to shoot if the circumstances changed. As they talked and the minutes ticked away, she glanced at her watch, cursing them for their busy tongues. She was not sure of the exact time the charge was set to go off but knew it was getting close.

  When they reentered the gate, she let out her breath in relief and could see the others move off down the street. Knowing they were safe, she hurried to the front corner of the room, sat on the floor and threw the heavy straw mattress from the bed over herself. With her back against the wall the window was on, she waited for the considerable shockwave the high explosive would produce. She hoped it was not big enough to bring the building down on her though.

  She removed her goggles, put in a set of earplugs and was checking her radio in preparation for reporting the result of the explosion to the others when it went off. Although the mattress was over her, the light flashed around it bright enough for her to see. Her skin pulsed from the pressure change and the concussion shook the floor so violently that she thought she was falling through it. When she inhaled her first breath, her nose tingled from the dust flung loose and the acrid smoke of the bomb.

  As the dust continued to settle, she threw off the mattress and ran to the window to evaluate the result of the explosion. It was dark again but for small burning patches of shrubbery along the front of the palace building. By the dim light she could not only see that the gate and guardhouse were gone but that the wall was rubble for twenty feet on each side of where they had once stood. The force of the explosion had thrown huge stones into the yard, front door and windows.

  Despite the destruction, it was dead quiet but for the occasional snap of a burning branch. She knew there would be a time lag between the explosion and a reaction by the guards, but it was several minutes before a bell rang and anyone came out to investigate. She thought that maybe the rescue party should have entered through the front door with all the time the guards had given.

  Her radio came to life when she heard Bechler say, “Sue, are you there?”

  She flipped on her microphone and answered, “I’m here.”

  “How did we do?”

  “Pretty impressive. I’m not sure where the gate is anymore, and you took out at least a fifty-foot section of the stone wall.”

  “Good, we’re in the tunnel heading towards the palace. How are our friends reacting?”

  Sue’s eyes continued scanning. “Not much. I’d wait a bit longer before breaking through. They’re just now starting to come out and investigate.”

  “All right. While we’re waiting, let’s start the rest of the fireworks. I’ll have Cassius start firing so you can get him sighted in.”

  “I’ll hit the compound with the laser.”

  She reached over to the Gatling gun tripod where it was mounted and flipped on the laser. She brought the goggles back over her eyes, verified she had it sighted on the compound and waited to see where the first round struck. Even though the rounds were laser guided, they would have to fire the mortars so they would descend close enough for the guiding fins on the back to steer it to the final landing spot.

  She heard Jen’s voice over the radio speaking Latin, giving Cassius instructions to start firing. When the first round zipped overhead, she could tell it was going to overshoot but knew this had been pre-planned. She would need to determine where the round landed to give an approximate distance it was off. If it came down behind her, she would be unable to give any useful feedback.

  There was a flash of light over the rooftop of the palace when the small charge hit. She said into the microphone, “Jen, it landed about a mile east and a few blocks north of the target.”

  “Got it,” replied Jen.

  Again, Sue heard Jen giving instructions then Cassius’ reply. The two talked back and forth a few times before the radio went silent. The next shot should be dead on, because Jen would calculate how many degrees to move the mortar tube.

  She was not disappointed. There was a loud swish followed by an explosion when the round hit the spot highlighted by the laser light. The rounds Cassius was firing at this point were very low power so the result was a bright flash and a cloud of dust kicking up. He had rounds that were more powerful at his disposal but would only use them if the firing got too heavy for Sue to handle.

  “Perfect!” cried Sue. “That hit dead on.”

  “Okay, great,” replied Bechler. “What are our friends doing now?”

  “Other than dodging out of the way, not much. There are more of them looking around though.”

  “Start shooting with the Gatling gun then.”

  “Will do.” She moved behind it, hitting the remote control.

  The gun whirred to life as the barrels started revolving around and the mountin
g arced back and forth. Shots rang out when the firing started, empty brass casings spitting out the side. Blue-white streaks zipped to the compound as the tracer rounds flared to life.

  Sue jumped from the raucous sound of the bullets sputtering out and put in her left earplug to block out the noise. Her right ear still stung from the thunderous din, the speaker of the radio headset unable to block its deafening noise. She moved farther away from the gun in an effort to lower its clatter but remained close enough to see the results on the palace.

  As she looked across at the compound, she saw what she wanted, her shots arcing across the opening in the wall that the bomb had created. The idea was not to obliterate everyone but to keep them pinned down enough to occupy them. After about ten seconds, she released the button and the firing stopped.

  Sue could see total chaos in the ranks as the confused guards stumbled about. After several more short bursts from the gun, she could hear someone calling out and taking charge. The guards began to return her fire, and splinters flew through the room when the bullets struck the stone walls and wood ceiling. Shards bounced off her body as the armor dissipated the blows.

  She was starting to relax into her task when something threw her shoulder back. She looked around in panic. She thought someone in the room had shoved her but then realized a bullet had struck her. Once the panic subsided, anger grew and she hit the firing button again, hoping she would hit the culprit with her rapid burst.

  Guards poured into the compound to join the battle, and the return fire intensified, causing a continuous shower of splinters to rain down. The room was like the fog of a bee swarm as bullets flew in and shards zipped around, bouncing from wall to wall. She hunkered down as a spray of stone fragments pelted her face shield and the smoke of gunpowder stung in her nose.

  “There’s quite a few out there now,” she shouted into her microphone. “Have Cassius start firing and go ahead in,” The thunderous sputtering of the Gatling gun started again when she depressed the firing button.

  Almost unable to hear him over the din, Bechler said, “Will do.”

   

  *****

 

   

  “Okay, you heard the lady,” said Bechler. “John, give Cassius the go ahead to start firing a round once every minute. Jen, let’s get this door open.”

  They had broken into the door of the bakery, found the tunnel entrance and traversed its length to the palace end. Several times Jen had put her ear to the back of the shelves covering the secret entrance to listen for activity. For a time she did but now could hear nothing. Most, if not all, of the guards appeared to be out of the barracks at this point. To be certain, they waited until Sue gave word that the fight was well underway before moving the shelves and entering the storage room.

  Fuller radioed Cassius and gave him the instructions. Once completed, he followed the others into the storage room and saw Jen on the floor with a spy-cam looking under the door between the closet and barracks. The spy-cam was a small video camera with a lens mounted on the end of a flexible gooseneck shaft. It was a foot and a half long and a quarter of an inch in diameter with an eyepiece to see the output of the camera. This allowed the operator to snake the camera lens under a door, over a fence or around a corner, giving them a good view while remaining out of sight.

  Jen whispered, “I see one person sitting on a bed that is straight ahead, but I cannot get a good shot of the whole room.” She stood and turned to the two men, coiling the spy-cam and stuffing it in her pocket.

  “We can’t wait,” said Bechler. “On three, Jen will open the door, and I’ll go right. John, you kneel here and after I go through, shoot the person on the other side. When you finish shooting, Jen will go through left. Ready?”

  “Yes,” they both said as Fuller went down to one knee, his particle gun held ready.

  “Okay then, one, two, three…”

  Jen snapped the door open with such force that Fuller could feel a definite breeze blow him back. When the door reached the half-open point, he could see someone standing with their back towards him about twenty feet into the room. Jen continued to pull and when the door reached three quarters, Bechler was going through it, disappearing around the right edge.

  Fuller, who had already taken aim, shot the particle gun with a blinding flash as the top half of the man’s body vaporized. A loud concussion and wave of heat struck Fuller a split second later.

  His eyes bulged and a sickening twist grew in his stomach when he watched the bodiless legs drop to the ground. What had he just done? What had been a man a split second earlier was no longer there. Only a pair of scorched stumps and a cloud of vapor showed evidence of there ever being one. The pounding of his heart was so intense that he felt like his ribs were bending outward with each beat. He fought back the feeling, knowing he had no time to contemplate what had happened.

  Jen bolted through the door to the left, and Fuller came to his feet, running into the center. When he drew close to the middle of the room, the door ahead of him started to open. Fuller fired again, not thinking of who he might injure or kill. He was only reacting to the possibility of his own life to lose.

  His aim was quick so he missed the door, hitting the stone wall next to it instead. An enormous blast blew apart the wall and whipped the smoldering door off its hinges. A shower of stone fragments flew at Fuller, driven by a burst of heated air. He could see beyond as the charred body of a man pounded against the back wall and bounced to the floor.

  Bechler yelled to him from the right side of the room, “John, turn the setting down before you bring the whole damn building down on us!”

  Jen came up to him on the left and adjusted it before he knew what was happening. As he was beginning to take in what she had just done, she shoved him onto a bed to his right, landing on top of him then continuing to roll. Once the two spun over the bed, they reached the other side and pummeled onto the floor, Fuller landing on top.

  Several thunderous pulses echoed through the room when an automatic weapon fired from the hole that Fuller had blasted in the wall. If not for Jen’s quick reflexes, he knew the bullets would have struck him. The shots hit the bed instead and a cloud of straw and dust flew over his face.

  A heavy perspiration grew on his forehead as he repeated over in his head that the body armor would have protected him. It was of the latest design from Bechler’s universe and was an ultra-lightweight fabric woven from nano-tube fiber. It was stronger than anything known in Fuller or Sue’s universes. Bechler assured them it would stop any bullet the guards would fire. Not only did they wear flak jackets made of the material but also thinner, more flexible pants too. This gave them full body protection from enemy fire.

  Despite the material’s great strength, he could not shake off what Bechler had told him several days earlier. A lucky shot could hit an unprotected hand or foot, worm between helmet and collar or ricochet behind a face shield. In addition to this, the pants were vulnerable to penetration from closer range shots due to having fewer layers. If struck in the exact same spot multiple times, the jackets would be at risk too. While very much protected, he was not invincible by any means.

  As the dust settled onto the clear polycarbonate of his face shield, he rolled off Jen and onto his stomach. He aimed his gun and prepared to shoot around the end of the bed. Before he could return fire though, he heard the crackle of stone when a shot from Bechler hit the wall next to the opening.

  He wormed his body to the edge of the bed and could see a rifle barrel protruding from the hole in the wall. Pointing in the direction of Bechler, flames were blazing from its end. Fuller was preparing to fire when a shriek pealed out through the room. Jen had fired over the top of the bed with enough precision to distort the gun barrel and cause it to backfire in the assailant’s face. Fuller cringed at the sound of the man screaming in agony and at the deadpan look on Jen’s face.

  When she rose and charged towar
ds the gaping hole, he did likewise, advancing behind her. He and Bechler came up to her just as she fired off another round into the bloody cavern of the faceless banshee. The piercing scream stopped and the lifeless guard tumbled over.

  Jen continued through the blasted doorway, looked side to side then turned back to them. “All clear in here.” She rushed to Fuller. “John, are you all right?”

  “Yeah, fine,” he said in a daze.

  “I am sorry I pushed you, but I saw the barrel coming around the corner and did not have time to warn you.”

  “Thank you,” muttered Fuller, still collecting his senses. “You kept me from getting hit.”

  “Let’s move on,” clipped in Bechler as he shook his head and advanced through the door.

  The next room was a smaller, office-like room with a table and several chairs. They passed through it into a dim hallway. Jen took the lead from there as the map of the building was set in her mind and her hyper-quick reflexes could react faster than the other two.

  The hall was long and wide, the end of which led to a stairway going up. They had proceeded down half of its length when a man emerged from the door at the far end. Jen fired, and before he had turned the corner, his body fell forward into the hall. A second man peeked around the corner but snapped back just as her second shot hit the doorframe.

  “There is someone down here!” called out the guard.

  He did not come through the door again, but his gun emerged and started firing down the hall. Jen dove left onto the floor while the bullets sprayed past where she had been, getting off one stray shot at the guard before she landed hard. Fuller and Bechler, not being as fast, took the brunt of the fire before they were able to react.

  A cascade of bullets slammed into Fuller’s chest, each feeling like someone was jabbing him hard with a blunt stick. At first he was shocked when the bullets pummeled him, but when the last hit, he stumbled backwards several steps before going down. Once Bechler reacted, he launched himself into a doorway.

  Jen fired another shot from the floor just as the man pulled the gun back around the corner, causing her to miss the shot again. Fuller could hear shouting but no discernible words when someone from the floor above called down the echoing stairwell.

  “I said, there is someone down here!” the guard yelled.

  His gun arced around the corner, firing off more shots. The bullets zoomed over Fuller this time, hitting walls and ricocheting their way down the hall. Jen fired another shot and hit the mark this time, the man’s charred hand dropping the gun and snapping back around the corner.

  Jen was rising from the floor when his hand came around the corner again. Fuller could just make out the form of a hand grenade when the guard slung it towards them. Jen hit the floor next to him as the explosive landed forty feet out and started rolling towards them. He went down flat with his shielded face to the floor when his ears exploded from the pressure of the blast. His nose burning from the stench of high explosive, Fuller lay there taking inventory of body parts. All was intact.

  He raised his head to see the guard pick up the rifle with his good hand and race towards them. Fuller had dropped his particle gun so was scrambling to find it when a black spot burned into the man’s chest from Jen’s shot. Momentum carried the man forward several yards, landing some twenty feet from their position.

  Jen sprang up and ran to Bechler, who was on the floor staring at his own bloody hand. Fuller ran to him too. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah,” Bechler croaked out. “Some shrapnel hit my hand.”

  “John, go to the stairwell and shoot anyone coming down. I will take care of Vince.” She pulled a small med kit from the leg pocket of her suit.

  Fuller retrieved his particle gun then sprinted up the hall to the stairs. On his way, he passed the spot where the grenade had gone off and thanked their good luck when he saw the damage it had caused. The flooring had a small gouge where the blast had sheared away several of the stones, but the bulk of the explosion had gone up and out. There were holes in the wood ceiling where pieces of shrapnel had penetrated, and one door that was gone, only fragments left hanging.

  When he reached the doorway to the stairs, he stopped and glanced around the corner. Nobody was there, but he could hear voices from the top of the stairway so he stayed alert in case someone should descend.

  After a time, someone from above called. “What is going on down there, Vibius?”

  Fuller stayed silent, considering his options. If he said nothing, they would come down to investigate. If he pretended to be Vibius and answered, he may fool them until the others were ready. He had nothing to lose so replied, “There was an intruder down here. I have killed him with one of the exploding stones.”

  “Are you mad?” called the guard. “You should not have used one inside like that.”

  “I had no choice. I could not get a shot at him.”

  “It is done now,” the guard said. His tone changed. “I am sorry I was not able to help. I was told not to leave my post for any reason.”

  “That is all right. I have taken care of him,” replied Fuller.

  In the time this exchange took place, Jen and Bechler had come up from behind. He could see a bandage around Bechler’s hand, but otherwise he seemed intact.

  Fuller heard a second voice echoing from the top of the stairs. “Who is it you are speaking with down there?”

  “It is Vibius,” said the first guard in reply.

  “That did not sound like Vibius to me,” said the second guard. He called louder now, “Who is down there?”

  “It is I, Vibius,” Fuller replied. He raised his voice to sound more urgent. “Wait, I need to go to the other end of the hall. There is another intruder down here.”

  “Wait, Vibius, are you still there?”

  Fuller stayed quiet and motioned to Bechler, questioning whether they should go upstairs. Bechler nodded and Fuller, as quiet as he could, began ascending with the others following. As they continued, he could hear the guards still talking.

  “Are you certain that was Vibius? It did not sound like him to me.”

  “He said it was, but I do not know him that well.”

  “I do know him, and that did not sound like him. We should go down and check.”

  “You can, but I was told by the centurion not to leave this post under any condition.”

  “Very well, I shall go myself then.”

  Fuller reached a landing when the footsteps of the other started down. He readied his particle gun, checking the setting to be sure it would not blow the stairway apart. He waited on one side of the landing but was ready to jump over when the man started to descend the stairs on the other side. His body was tense from anticipation so he took several deep breaths to calm himself, making sure they were not loud enough for the guard to hear.

  When he heard feet scuffling on the higher landing, he spun around the corner and shot. He hit the guard in the groin, almost burning a hole through his body. The man screamed in pain until Fuller shot a second time, this one hitting higher up on his chest. The screaming stopped and the man fell down the steps.

  Fuller dodged to avoid the corpse then ran up the steps to reach the other guard before he could alert anyone. Jen shot around and passed him, bounding up a half dozen steps at a time. Before he could reach the top, shots rang out and bullets ricocheted off the walls when the guard fired at her.

  Fuller stopped his ascent when he reached Jen, who was on her stomach, her head near the top step. He thought she may have been hit but then heard the particle gun strike the stone wall above. Her second shot hit home, and the machine gun fire stopped raining down. She looked back to verify Fuller and Bechler were behind her.

  “Keep going to the next level,” Bechler called to her.

  Jen bounded the last steps to the landing on the first floor and darted around the corner, out of Fuller’s sight.

 
Reaching the landing, he glanced through the door and saw the dead guard on the floor, a charred crust where a face had once been.

  As he rounded the corner to the next flight of steps, he got an odd feeling inside. He had looked at the dead man with such little emotion and realized he was becoming calloused. He had never killed anyone before today but, hard as he thought, he could not recall how many he had brought down. Was it two or three now?

  He remembered the emotionless look on Jen’s face when she heard the screams of the guard whose gun had backfired. He shuddered as he wondered if his own face looked the same when he glanced at the blackened remains a moment before. He pushed the thought from his mind and continued up. Now was not the time to think but to act. He knew if he tried to rationalize his actions, it could mean a delay and the loss of his life or that of a friend.

  When they reached the second floor, there was no sentry posted. Fuller gulped in air from the exertion and wished he had time for water. He licked his lips with a dry tongue but knew there was no time for small comforts. They had to press on.

  Jen led them this way and that as she navigated through a maze of corridors. He was thankful for her ability to memorize the building plans because his sense of direction was twisted from all the turns. She reached another corner and snapped to a halt, causing Fuller to crash into her. Bechler likewise smacked into Fuller. The force of both men battering her did not push her forward though, her body as rooted as a tree trunk.

  Jen turned and whispered to the men, “The children’s quarters are to the right.” She pulled the spy-cam from her pocket, curved the end of it around the corner and looked through the viewfinder. “There is one guard at the door and another at the end of the hall.”

  Bechler, who had come alongside Fuller asked, “Can you take them both out?”

  “I can try,” she replied. “I will shoot the one at the door first, as he is closest, and then try for the second.”

  “John, let me go after Jen and see if I can get the second one if she misses,” whispered Bechler.

  “Right,” said Fuller.

  “Go when you’re ready, Jen,” said Bechler.

  She gave the others a moment to get in place, Bechler behind her and Fuller to his left. As Jen rounded the corner, hugging the wall, Fuller and Bechler ran wide. Fuller thumped the far wall after turning right and Bechler ended up in the center of the hall.

  Jen hit the guard at the door with her first shot, grazing his shoulder but not bringing him down. He screamed in pain, but before he could raise his gun to return fire, she hit him a second time, this one in the center of his chest. As his body slumped down, the guard at the far end of the hall was reacting. He jumped around the corner for cover as his gun started blazing out shots. Bechler then Fuller fired at where the guard had been a split second before, each hitting the far wall.

  The guard was already around the corner when Jen got off a third shot as she continued running towards the door. It hit the ceiling though because a bullet had slammed her shoulder back from its impact.

  Jen crossed from the right side of the hall to the left while she ran. Being between Fuller and the guard, he could not take another shot without hitting her in the back, so he ran towards the door too. Bechler sprinted down the right side of the hall, firing several more shots at the corner to keep the guard pinned down.

  When Jen reached the door, it would not open, so she took a step back and kicked hard. The hall echoed with the sharp sound of splintering wood when the frame gave way to her heavy blow. After she ran through, Fuller took a last shot at the corner before turning left into the doorway himself. Rebounding from Jen’s kick, he shoved the door aside as he ran through. Machine guns began to blaze again, but Bechler came through the door a second later, slamming the splintered door closed as best he could.

  The room was black, so Fuller pulled his night-vision goggles over his eyes. He could see they were in a large room, which was marked on the plans as the children’s play area. An array of toys filled the room. Dolls of all kind, toy chariots, tiny dining tables decked out for play parties, ranks of carved wooden soldiers staring at attention and stitched leather balls were everywhere one turned. It was obvious the royal children had no want of items to play with.

  Each of the children’s bedrooms adjoined this one, and Jen was already at the door on the left wall. He followed her into the room and saw her tearing at a blanketed bed to find a child that was not there.

  “What the hell!” said Fuller as Jen turned back to him.

  “No one is in here.”

  “Let’s check the next bedroom,” he suggested.

  The two ran back to the playroom and saw Bechler still at the hall door, making sure no one entered.

  “Where’s the kid?” he asked, looking back at them.

  “There wasn’t one in that room,” called Fuller over his shoulder while he raced towards the door on the back wall of the room.

  “I will check this room,” said Jen, running over to the third and last door on the right.

  Fuller ran into the center room and could see no one in this bed either. He pulled back the covers to be sure but found it empty. He was turning to leave the room when his infrared vision revealed a glowing blob of heat behind the curtain of a large wardrobe unit. He bounded to it and yanked back the drape. There was a girl huddled along the side, her arms raised in front of her face as though to block an anticipated blow.

  “Do not be frightened,” he said in Latin. “I am here to bring you to your father.”

  The girl did not uncover herself, her arms shuddering with his every word. He reached down and touched the back of her balled right hand. She recoiled and shrank back farther into the cabinet, screaming out, “Please do not hurt me! Please do not hurt me!”

  Although he could not see her face or estimate height from her fetal position, he could still tell from her voice that this was not a child but a young woman. He was not sure what to do at this point. This could not be one of the emperor’s children, nor did he think it was his wife. He was still pondering the situation when Jen ran into the room.

  “What is wrong?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure. I found this woman hiding in the wardrobe, and she’s frightened out of her mind,” said Fuller.

  “Do you know who she is?”

  “No. She’s too old to be one of the emperor’s kids, and his wife was expecting us, so I don’t think it’s her either.” He shrugged and added, “She must be a nanny or something…”

  Jen pulled a penlight from her pocket and snapped it on. Although small, the bright yellow light illuminated the corner of the room.

  “Were the kids in the other room then?” asked Fuller.

  “No, they were not. We need to find out where they have taken them. This woman may be able to tell us.”

  Jen got down on one knee and pulled up her face shield to talk to the woman. In a soothing tone, she said to the woman in Latin, “Miss, we are not here to harm you. We are friends of the emperor. Will it be all right if we talk for a moment?”

  “Wh… what do you want?” she stuttered out.

  Jen’s body went erect at the sound of the woman’s voice. “Is your name Agacia?”

  “Yes.”

  “I thought it was you. It is I, Flavia.”

  Agacia became emboldened. Although still holding her arms over her head, she spread them apart to peek at Jen. She said, “Flavia? It is you. Why are you in such strange clothes?”

  “I have little time to explain, but we are here at the emperor’s request. He has asked us to remove his wife and children from the palace. Placidia has threatened to kill them if the emperor does not follow all he says.”

  Agacia had lowered her arms and was nodding her head while she listened. “Yes, Lord Placidia is an evil man. All the servants fear him.

  The thunderous rattling of automatic weapons fire began from the outer room,
and Bechler called, “Hurry, you two, reinforcements are here! We’ll have to fight our way out now before more come.”

  “We’re coming!” Fuller called over his shoulder. Turning back to the women, he said, “Come on, Jen, we need to go.”

  “Yes, but where? We need to find out where the family is first.”

  It was logical so Fuller could not argue. It would take hours to search a building this size, and every minute spent was drawing more attention away from the front gate. Soon they would realize the assault was only a diversion for their search inside.

  “Agacia, do you know where the emperor’s family is?”

  “Yes. They sent me to rouse the children from bed. After a time, some guards came and took them.” She was more at ease now that she knew who Jen was but still spoke with a nervous rapidity. “I heard one tell another they were to be brought to the upper party room before they locked me in here and left.”

  “The upper party room?” questioned Jen. “I do not remember seeing a room with that designation on the plans.” She looked at Fuller with furrowed brows.

  “Can you take us there?” he asked the girl.

  Agacia nodded. “Yes.”

  The noise escalated from the other room as the guards sprayed the door to the hall with gunfire. Several bullets zipped past Fuller, hitting the back wall.

  Bechler yelled again. “Jen, John! Get in here damn it! They’ll be coming in any second.”

  “Stay with her,” said Fuller. “Stay in front of her to keep any stray bullets from hitting her.” He began to crawl out the door and then turned. “Kill that light too.”

  The light extinguished and Fuller continued into the outer room, bringing down his goggles and face shield again. The rate of fire in the room was now at a furious pace as the swarms of bullets zipped overhead at all angles. He thought there must be several men out there emptying clip after clip into the door before entering. Ricochets pelted off his back while he moved forward, most bouncing off with no effect but others stinging as they hit with more force.

  Bechler had barricaded the door with two heavy oak benches, and he was several yards to the side waiting to fire when the guards entered. Fuller knew the flimsy barrier would not slow the guards when they decided to storm through. As wood splinters continued to fly in every direction, the machine guns were cutting the door in half. He could see into the hall through the fog of bullets streaming in, a patch of stone wall emerging through the ever-widening gash.

  He pulled the particle gun from his side and looked at the power control. It was set to low, but with an evil grin, he turned it all the way up. Taking careful aim at the wall on the far side of the hall, he pressed the trigger. An enormous concussion shook the floor under him when the wall beyond vaporized in a wave of intense heat. Flaming chunks of door flew at him, slamming into his face shield and knocking the gun from his hand.

  “Damn!” cried Fuller, his laugh booming out. His bloody right hand hurt from the smoldering wood that had hit it, but he was enjoying himself far too much to take notice. His riotous laugh died down as the dust started to settle.

  “God damn it, Fuller! Are you trying to kill us?” yelled Bechler.

  “No, just them,” he chuckled.

  Fuller found his gun then went to the door to assess the destruction. He pushed aside the smoldering remnant of a bench and entered the dark hall, the blast having extinguished all the oil lamps. He could see through his goggles that the wall on the opposite side was gone and the floor above had collapsed down. He ducked his head under a low-hanging beam and worked his way down the hall. It was empty except for charred bodies and rubble strewn about. When he walked back towards the door, he could see Bechler walking from the other end of the hallway.

  “It’s all clear this way,” said Bechler.

  “This way too,” he replied.

  When Fuller reached the doorway, he called in, “Okay, Jen, let’s go. It’s on to the party room.”

   

  *****

 

   

  Sue’s radio crackled to life as she heard Cassius and Fuller talking back and forth in Latin. After several exchanges between them, Fuller called to her, “Sue, can you hear me?”

  “Yeah, I’m here,” she replied.

  “How are things going?”

  “Okay so far. I think we’ve thinned them out a bit. They’re not hitting me as hard now.”

  “Good. Cassius has run out of low-power shells and is going to start to fire some of the higher-power ones.”

  “All right. That should get rid of a few more. I’ll shift the laser around to the left side of the gate. That seems to be the direction most of them are firing from now.”

  Bechler cut in. “How’s the ammo holding out?”

  “I’ve used about half but should be in good shape. I’m not firing as much now. How are you guys coming along?”

  “We’re heading up to the third floor now. The family wasn’t where they were supposed to be. The guards moved them.”

  “Shit!” Sue exclaimed. “You better hurry and find them. It won’t be much longer before I shift out. Once my diversion is gone, they’ll start focusing on you.”

  “I know. We’re hurrying!” Bechler snapped back. “Over and out.”

  There was a loud explosion outside when one of the higher-power mortar shells hit. Sue went to the laser and shifted it to the left edge of the remaining wall. When finished, she saw something strike the window frame and bounce back into the street. It took several seconds for it to sink in, but she realized they had lobbed a grenade at her.

  When it exploded, her pulse raced as she scooped up one of her napalm grenades. She had forgotten about them and realized it was critical for her to use them now to drive away the thrower. The body armor should protect her from all but the luckiest of shots from a gun, but a grenade was another matter. While the suit may protect her from the fragments it released, the concussion from the high explosive would be fatal at close range.

  Sue pulled the pin on one of the grenades and chucked it out the window. It exploded in a bright yellow flash, spreading the fiery jelly in a wide circle. As the flare grew brighter, a terrifying screech arose. Sue froze at the sound, too horrified to move or do anything but listen to his continuous screams of agony. Her mind raced in circles as she reached under her helmet to clamp a hand over the radio headset. It was no use though. The wailing continued to bore its way into her ear until her own sobs finally drowned it out.

  She could not fathom the pain the man must be feeling. He could not shake the sticky gel. It would continue to burn until the fuel was gone, but by that time, it would have burned down to bone. The only hope was that the man would die quickly from asphyxiation. When the screams lingered on though, she knew this was not going to happen.

  Frozen by the window, she was still weeping when a bullet hit her face shield. Her head snapped back from the force, and she threw herself backwards the rest of the way to the floor. Her head struck the hard wood with a thud and despite the helmet’s cushioning, she felt woozy from the blow.

  As fear took hold, her sobbing stopped and she rolled onto her stomach, then onto hands and knees. She could no longer hear the screaming man outside when she started crawling around to the left side of the windows. With most of the shots hitting the right side of the room, she knew she would be safer in the opposite corner. She had just come around the back of the Gatling gun when she heard banging on the door.

  Her head snapped around just as a stream of bullets perforated the door and a shower of wood splinters flew into the room. Sue’s mouth dropped open, and she drew in a quick breath, her heart still pounding with fear. The gas should have knocked out anyone coming through the hall, so her fear rose to panic when she thought they had somehow gotten gas masks.

  She flattened down to her stomach and wormed her way out of direct fire from the door. After a few more rounds
, the shooting stopped and she lay there for several seconds before grasping what had happened. The gas took time to work, and in that interval, they had reached the door.

  Sue inched her way to the nitrous tanks and looked at the pressure gauge. With plenty of gas remaining, she gave several turns to the regulator to thicken the cloud in the hall.

  She was still a bit woozy from the blow to her head as she got back onto her hands and knees, but then her eyes widened when she looked at the door. The bullets had peppered it with holes, and a chunk the size of her fist was missing from the center. The dizziness may not be from striking her head but from the nitrous leaking into the room!

  Not thinking of any other danger, she shot to her feet and ran to the can of foam insulation, rushing back to the door with it. Another wave of panic hit when she pulled its trigger and realized hardened foam from her previous use had clogged the nozzle. Stumbling back to get another container, several more bullets slammed into her, but she managed to snatch up another can. This one exploded into a mass of oozing froth when a bullet went through its side.

  “Damn it!” Sue screamed, dropping the blob to the floor. She grabbed the third and final can and swung it around so her body would shield it from the missiles zipping through the window. She raced to the door, foamed the holes shut and got back on the floor. She laid there for a moment, her head dizzy from the gas. Pulling the Gatling gun remote from her pocket, she gave several more bursts of fire but continued to lie on the floor to recover from the daze of the gas.

  The swarm of bullets intensified and was different somehow. She realized they were not only striking the ceiling and high up on the walls but were now hitting mid-wall and even lower.

  She got down on her stomach again and inched her way to the window to get a better look. The guards had moved to the second-story windows and were firing across at her. She knew it was only a matter of time before they went to the third floor and began firing down on her.

  She inched her way to the Gatling gun and released a catch on its mounting. They had configured the gun to rise up and down as it arced back and forth. It had been set to raise only a few degrees before working its way back down again, keeping the fire towards the ground. Releasing the catch would allow it to go up to the roofline before coming down and would sweep the entire face of the building. She knew this would only stop them for a short time though. Once the guards learned the pattern of its sweep, they could anticipate when it was coming back to them and take cover until it passed.

  Sue pressed the firing button and held it down, hoping it would take out most of the men in the first few passes. As she did this, she inched her way over to the safest place in the room: the corner where the window wall met the floor. She lay in the corner, her head towards the Gatling gun, and watched while the thundering gun sputtered out round after round. Spent shell casings littered the floor and the pile climbed ever higher.

  Her plan had the proper effect though because the firing from outside slowed. Just as she breathed out in a sigh of relief, her heart seemed to stop in its perpetual pulsing while time slowed. First one, then a second grenade flew in through the window, landing and then rolling down the opposite side of the pile of brass casings. The napalm on the street had burned out, allowing a second wave of grenade throwers.

  Sue’s mind raced with indecision: what to do, what to do, thoughts twisting and winding through her head as time stretched out to infinity. Time ticked forward, the uncertainty in her mind ceased and calm took hold when the inevitability of what was to happen struck. There was nothing to do now but curl up in a ball with the remote under her and wish for the best.

  Her last thought when the shockwave battered her was to hope the blast did not damage the Gatling gun and that the weight of her dead body would keep the remote pressed so it would fire until the ammo ran out.

 

 

  CHAPTER 12