Strike Matrix

by Aiden L Bailey

  Casey and Conner carried the wincing Clementine outside.

  The armory was easy enough to reach with half its wall torn away. Peri and Simon secured two Steyr AUG assault rifles, four Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistols, four sets of body armor and as many spare magazines for both weapons as they could carry. In the last minute, Simon grabbed a carbon steel-bladed fighting knife.

  The ceiling shuddered, dropped half a meter, then held.

  Simon had tensed waiting for the impact. For a second he had thought they were about to die.

  “No more time Simon! We need to leave.”

  They sprinted outside as more of the building collapsed.

  Not far from them the supertanker was no longer moving. Dwarfing the Border Force building, it burned with several spot fires. Fire crews were standing by, but no one got close. It was only a matter of time before it too ignited. Towards the port, another fuel storage tank erupted as another gigantic fireball that seemed to fill half the night sky.

  “What a waste,” Simon commented.

  Peri shrugged. “Remember what we read in India? The AIs have developed workable fusion technology. We don’t need petrochemicals anymore.”

  Simon shuddered at the thought. Were all actions of the AIs calculated to achieve multiple outcomes at every turn?

  A Toyota Land Cruiser sped towards them, turned and braked in the last second. Weary of further attack, Simon readied his Steyr when the door flung open. Conner was driving. Casey was in the passenger seat. “Get in!” she yelled.

  Peri and Simon climbed into the back.

  They noticed Clementine wasn’t with them.

  “Where’s your mother?” Simon asked.

  “We ran into an ambulance,” Casey explained. “I didn’t want to leave her with the paramedics, but what else could we do? We can’t take her with us, with an injury like that?”

  Simon nodded. “She’ll be fine, Casey. I know you’ll worry about her, but there is no reason for Shatterhand to come after her now, in her state. At least not until it’s dealt with us.” He realized they were all making difficult decisions, and he had just asked Casey to make another. The mental and physical toll of their adventure was wearing them down. He expected a protest, but she said nothing. “I promise you Casey, your mom is safer away from us. Like my children are safer away from me right now.”

  Casey nodded, wiping away a tear. “You’re right. We need to fix this. None of us can ever be safe until we deal with Shatterhand once and for all.”

  As the Land Cruiser sped beyond the fuel terminal, they holstered their pistols, fitted their body armor and filled the pouches with spare ammo magazines. Simon handed two of the Glocks and two sets of body armor to Casey and Conner. Casey kitted out. Conner said he would change when they reached their destination. Driving in this mayhem took all his concentration.

  “Any ideas where we go?” asked the Irishman. “I say we go to ground, hide out and work out—”

  “No,” Casey interrupted. “I know what we need to do.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Head to the airfield where we landed. There are at least a dozen single propeller light aircraft out there.”

  “Can you fly a plane?” Peri looked to Simon expecting him to be the pilot.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I presume you can’t either?”

  “Not a chance,” Peri sighed.

  “Me neither,” piped in Conner. “If you were wondering?”

  “I guessed that,” replied Peri.

  Casey laughed. “Simon, Peri, did you forget? I can fly light aircraft. I have been taking lessons for years. We’re flying out now. I’m taking you to Shatterhand’s Fortress before it realizes we’ve escaped and sends someone else to stop us.”

  CHAPTER 45

  Outback, Northern Territory, Australia

  The sun rose over the semi-tropical scrubland. Casey kept the six-seater Cessna close to the ground to avoid radar which also allowed for close-up views of the varied landscape. Conner and Peri in the back balanced out the weight of the twin propeller plane, each at a window. Simon in the copilot seat next to Casey had a wider field of vision.

  They flew southeast for several hours heading deeper into the Australian Outback. Simon spotted wide rivers with crocodiles basking on the banks and vast expanses of eucalyptus forests interspersed with rugged savannas. Hundreds of grazing kangaroos and their joeys dotted the grasslands. Thousands of termite mounds twice the height of a human lined plains of red and yellow sands. Occasional honeycomb rocks resembling frozen sentinels seemed to have stood to attention since the Earth’s formation billions of years in the past.

  Despite the rugged beauty, there was no disguising this was enemy territory. Shatterhand’s defenses would be extensive and deceptive. In preparation, Conner, Peri, Casey and Simon wore their body armor and slung their weapons.

  Their inventory included backpacks with as much water as they could carry. There was no food, but they could cope without nourishment for the next twenty-four hours if they had to. Food was not a problem because only two paths lay before them. Either they destroyed Shatterhand today, or it destroyed them.

  Casey didn’t talk as she concentrated on keeping close to the ground but high enough to avoid a collision with rocky peaks or tall gumtrees. Conner and Peri remained contemplative in the back. Everyone enjoyed the silence. Perhaps they all felt as Simon did, that this was the endgame and they each needed time to reflect on what had passed and what they would each face before the end.

  Simon considered that he hadn’t had time to get to know Conner or Peri since their race from India. Yet he felt he was establishing an idea of their personalities and drives.

  Conner was a joker. He often quipped to mask his fear and uncertainty. He forged easy relationships with everyone and had a knack for putting others at ease with his confident smiles and relaxed demeanor. Judging on what he had told them yesterday, Conner had endured as much trauma and danger as the rest of them. He had done well to survive as long as he had with no formal military training, although he seemed to be proficient in small arms.

  Peri in comparison was serious and aloof. Over time, she had proved herself a consummate professional, very different from the mess Simon had first encountered when Peri struggled with a disease that was killing her. The opposite to Conner, she had a knack of putting everyone off side. She didn’t suffer fools and she could make others feel like they were always wrong and she was always right. Although they no longer had access to the data files describing the Shatterhand Fortress — which had been taken from them in Darwin — to her credit Peri had remembered much of the detail including its longitude and latitude coordinates and the various pass codes required to break into the inner sanctum. This showed to Simon more than anything else that Peri had good reason to be confident in her abilities.

  “Simon?” Casey interrupted his thoughts. She tapped the fuel gauge. “I don’t think we’ll have enough to fly back.”

  Simon nodded. “We can survive in the bush if we need to. Learned how during my Army days, here in the Top End of all places.”

  “Top End?”

  “Local lingo for this part of Australia. There’s a lot we can eat down there.”

  “Crocodiles?” she jested.

  “If you’re willing to wrestle one,” Simon laughed with her, “then I’m game.”

  She checked her navigation charts. “We’re coming up to the site now. Time to look for the airstrip.”

  Earlier in the morning, Peri had reminded them all that there were no roads in or out of the Fortress, only a small airfield located half a kilometer from the six-pointed, asterisk-shaped complex. The nearest human settlement was at least one hundred kilometers distant and nothing more than a remote cattle station. The airfield would be the only place to set down and the only means by which to leave again.

  Casey turned to Peri and Conner, both stretching in the back to wake their stiff muscles. “If either of you see the facility, or the
landing strip, let me know. I’ve got about thirty more minutes of flying time. Then we’re landing whether or not we like it.”

  “No problem,” Conner yawned as he stretched out his arms. “It’s beautiful here, Casey.”

  “Or eerily beautiful,” she half agreed.

  Conner nodded. “Hard to believe everything is changing in the world when this place looks untouched. But I’m sure it’s not.”

  “I agree,” Simon said, “on both your observations.”

  Soon the complex came into view, although it had been difficult to see at first. Garden roofs abundant with bush vegetation hid the asterisk-shaped building well enough so that from a higher altitude it would have been difficult to see. At their low altitude the camouflage wasn’t anywhere as effective. The Fortress was larger than Simon expected even though he had seen its schematics, perhaps two hundred and fifty meters across. His stomach tightened in knots knowing that whatever they encountered down there, it would be nothing they could imagine or plan for.

  “Nowhere to land,” Casey said. “The airfield doesn’t seem to exist.”

  “We’ll find it.” Simon touched her on the shoulder and grinned. “We have time to circle around.”

  Casey almost answered when a bright light erupted from the center of the complex, grew brighter by the seconds and ripped past them.

  In the same instance the Cessna’s tail shuddered. An explosion detonated behind them. They quickly lost altitude as Casey struggled to control their decent.

  It all happened so fast. Simon only now realized what had happened.

  A surface-to-air missile had struck their tail. Only the luck of a glancing blow had saved them from a denotation upon impact.

  Simon recovered his wits and helped Casey pull up on the copilot’s wheel, fighting the wind buffeting against the flaps to slow their decent.

  The cabin shook. The horizon turned in violent angles. The ground raced up towards them.

  Simon yanked harder on the wheel. He gained a purchase and their speed slowed, but not fast enough.

  They hit a gum tree side on, which flung them in faster circles.

  Seconds passed in dizzying motions.

  They hit the ground and skidded across sand and scrub.

  The impact was sudden, jarring and repetitive, like a skimmed stone bouncing off water.

  The wings snapped off. Simon watched them shoot through the bushland, smashing against saplings and rock.

  Windshields shattered. Metal tore.

  They collided with another tree and turned spinning before they hit the sand again.

  The last hundred meters were a gentle skid until the Cessna came to a gradual stop.

  Shaking his head to clear his disorientation, Simon unbuckled, pushed open the door and fell outside. The cuts from Nangula’s punches and the knife wound received in Mumbai had each opened again and seeped blood.

  The beating his body had taken during the crash was a worse pain, like a thousand bees had stung him. He wasn’t sure he could take much more bodily abuse.

  Determined to battle on, he staggered around the wreckage to Casey’s side and flung open her door.

  “I’m fine,” she said as she unfastened her own seatbelt. She looked to have taken a beating herself with bruises and minor cuts on her face. Her glasses remained unscathed. “Simon. Check on the others.”

  Simon nodded, his head spinning. Before he could act Conner fell rather than climbed from the wreckage. The Irishman vomited up the contents of his stomach. Simon noticed blood in the bile but said nothing. Conner might have internal bleeding. If that was the case there was nothing they could do for him here, isolated in the bush and far from a hospital.

  Peri too staggered from the plane. She had a cut on her hairline but otherwise seemed unscathed. She shook her head showing she was fine.

  Simon went to Conner, put the man’s arm over his shoulder and half-carried, half-walked him from the wreckage. When the two men reached the shade of several trees, they stopped and fell down into the earth.

  “Thanks mate,” Conner said with a grin. “Fuck, I could do with a beer right now.”

  “Me too mate,” Simon said panting from the pain in his muscles. “When this is all over, let’s do that. I know a good pub in Darwin.”

  Conner gave a manic smile as blood trickled out the side of his mouth. “I know a good pub too. Wonder if it is the same one?” His pupils dilated and he couldn’t focus.

  Peri and Casey had meanwhile collected their water provisions and weapons, then joined the men under the tree cover. Everyone quenched their thirst and lay still for a moment, recovering from the shock of the attack.

  “We should have expected that,” Peri said.

  “I did,” Casey responded. “That’s why I kept us as low as I could and avoided using GPS for navigation. What else could I have done?”

  “Nothing,” Conner said before he broke into a throaty coughing fit.

  “Well, we’re all in one piece,” Simon said, his tone upbeat. “How is everyone holding up? Ready to move again?”

  Conner gave the thumbs up. “Just give me a minute…” He coughed again bringing up more blood. When finished, he wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his shirt soaking it red. If he noticed the blood, he said nothing. “What a beautiful fucking day to fight an AI.”

  Simon stood despite the protests in his back and muscles. He wasn’t a young man anymore. He couldn’t keep taking beatings like this. Simon needed to settle down, choose a life and profession that was easier, where he wasn’t risking his life every day. A normal routine where it would be safe to be with Rebecca and Katie and not worry about threats or random acts of violence. If they beat Shatterhand, that would be the life he would make, with Casey at his side.

  The thought gave him strength.

  He lifted his Steyr AUG assault rifle and said, “Who’s with me?”

  “We all are, mate.” Conner climbed to his feet. He couldn’t stand straight because of the pain in his gut. In frustration he undid his body armor and let it drop to the earth. “That’s better,” he said with a grin. “Wasn’t using it, anyway.”

  “That vest is the difference between life and death if you’re shot,” Peri reminded him.

  Conner laughed. “I know that Peri. I also know you all know I’m bleeding internally. Getting shot right now is the least of my problems.” He coughed again.

  Simon came to him and helped him stand. “You don’t look good,” he said acknowledging Conner’s desperate situation. “Stay here and rest? We’ll come back for you when we’re done?”

  Conner shook his head. “I’m coming. But don’t wait for me to catch up… if I slow you down.”

  “We’ll get you to a doctor,” Casey offered, “as soon as we’re done here. I promise.”

  Conner chuckled again, which caused him to spit up more blood. “Casey, don’t make me laugh, please? But I like your optimism. Because I would have said ‘if’ we get done here.”

  “We’ll make it,” Simon said, believing it. They were so close they couldn’t fail now.

  Another streak of light raced through the atmosphere striking the Cessna. The aircraft tore apart as a new fireball ripped through it, disintegrating the remains of the hull. Flames licked the air and black smoke spread across the body. They were only just distant enough from the concussion waves.

  “Where did that come from?” Casey asked scanning the skies.

  “Drones,” Simon answered with a meek grin. “That’s why Shatterhand maintains an airfield, and why we need to get inside.”

  CHAPTER 46

  Peri, Simon, Casey and Conner advanced together through the bush. Peri took lead keeping her head low and eyes peeled. Her Steyr assault rifle always at the ready. Simon slung Conner’s arm over his shoulder and aided the poor man in his labored strides. Casey brought up the rear with a semi-automatic pistol at the ready.

  When they were within a hundred meters of the Fortress’ closest entrance, they took cover behind
a fallen trunk of an old eucalyptus tree.

  It surprised Peri to see established tree cover flush to the complex walls obscuring it from ground and aerial observation. Normal ‘human’ construction techniques would have seen the trees felled, and the land cleared for at least five meters around the building footprint. There were no signs of access roads to bring building materials in. Whatever had erected this structure didn’t comply to any human engineering conventions Peri was familiar with.

  “What are those?” Casey pointed to indentations in the earth.

  At first Peri thought they might be a dog or dingo paw prints but these had sharper, straighter edges.

  “Doesn’t look good,” Peri mused. The prints reminded her of the crates in Navi Mumbai and what they had contained…

  “What about them?” Casey asked. She looked again at the tracks trying to see what frightened Peri.

  “These explain why the drone didn’t come back for us,” answered Peri.

  Simon helped Conner sit, leaned him against the log then joined the conversion. “I’d presumed we’re too close to the Fortress now for the drone to risk damaging it with an aerial strike?”

  Peri looked at Simon. He was a mess of bruises and cuts, some fresh and some old. Trails of dried blood ran from the various bandages covering his body including where she had slashed him with a knife. His every moment caused him to tense yet he was doing his best to hide his pain. It surprised her he was standing.

  “I’m okay to keep going,” Simon responded as if reading her mind. “If that’s what you’re worried about?”

  She nodded realizing her expression wasn’t as impassive as she’d hoped. “That’s good to hear.”

  “Let’s stay on-mission. What are these tracks?”

  “Something far worse than dingoes.”

  Simon crouched to examine the indentations.

  Peri meanwhile took a step forward to follow the tracks, not realizing she had moved just in time to save her life. In an instant, a volley of bullets disintegrated a tree behind where she had been standing.