The Secret Bunker Trilogy

by Paul Teague

  ‘What’s all this got to do with us?’ I ask Nat. ‘I just don’t get why we’re so important!’

  ‘There’s a lot I need to tell you Dan,’ says Nat, and I get the feeling that now is not the time to get into this conversation, however much I’m desperate to know.

  ‘There’s something about drones that we need to know,’ I splutter. ‘Some kind of terrorist has got involved with whatever is going on here and they’re going to target the drones.’

  ‘I’m slightly ahead with some of the technology here Dan,’ Nat replies. ‘Where I’ve been held, they use a lot of this stuff and I’ve seen how some of it works.’

  This hangs in the air. Nat doesn’t want to tell me something, and I decide not to probe just yet. What does she mean by being ‘held’? That sounds like prison or something. And it certainly doesn’t suggest that she was a volunteer there.

  ‘We need to find Mum and James first,’ I suggest. ‘If we can get to them, we can make a plan.’

  ‘I have another idea,’ replies Nat.

  ‘We need to see where that lift will take us and get out of here if we can.’

  ‘Whatever this transporter thing does, when I disappeared just now I was in a different place.’

  ‘It was like this area, but different. I’m sure it was in another bunker.’

  I’m as keen as Nat to try the Transporter, but I need to tell her about the secret video message first.

  ‘But Doctor Pierce said to trust Mum and James ...’ I begin.

  ‘Doctor Pierce!’ she explodes. ‘That man is the Devil.’

  Alliance

  ‘How did you know about the ribs though?’ she asked, as he ran the electronic device once again over the wounded area. The instrument that he was using had had an immediate and massive effect on the bleeding. She felt shocked, sore and unsteady, but it had actually healed her in front of her own eyes, as if it had accelerated a biological process that would normally take months of rehabilitation like the last time she’d been shot.

  ‘I know a lot about you and your family,’ he replied, sensing that the time for secrecy was probably over.

  He was too far in now, he’d committed to helping this woman and trying to find out how her child was involved. He needed to discover why he’d been in the car that had seemingly killed her.

  ‘I work for an organization called The Global Consortium,’ he began.

  She was too tired now to ask questions, she just needed to rest a while and orientate herself. Mindful of whatever was happening to her family as they spoke, but deciding to trust this man for now, she indicated with a nod that he should continue speaking.

  ‘As you heard from the announcement, we are in the middle of a terraforming process,’ he continued. ‘This has been planned for many years now, it’s the culmination of a very long-term international initiative.

  ‘The terraforming itself is benign and, from my restricted knowledge of the project, this is all pretty critical, but it’s scheduled to take place around us.

  ‘In simple terms, the aim is for the Earth to be healed while everybody sleeps.’

  She looked at him, hanging on to every drop of information that he was imparting, struggling to come to terms with the sheer scale of what was going on.

  ‘There’s something not right though,’ the man carried on, sensing how much she craved this information.

  ‘When I saw that you were involved in this, I knew there had to be a connection with the death of your daughter ...’ he started.

  ‘Nat …’ she said, and her name just hung there for a moment.

  ‘She’s alive,’ he picked up from the silence, ‘but like you I was there when she died three years ago.’

  ‘What do you know?’ she began, but decided against it.

  He saw that she’d thought better of it for now, and carried on with his explanation.

  ‘You’re all connected to this in some way Amy,’ he said, using her name for the first time. If they were to form an alliance, that seemed more appropriate. ‘You, your two eldest children and that man who came to rescue you from outside the blast doors, he must be involved in this too.

  ‘I just can’t see what it is yet, but whatever is going on, it’s not how this was planned. This is a massive planet-wide operation, but for The Global Consortium it’s not considered to be a massive security risk in any way. In some ways, it’s the safest we could ever be: the entire world is involved in these events, they all want it to happen, they’re actually all united on this.’

  She could sense that there was more to come, that he was choosing his words with care.

  ‘There’s a problem with the Neuronic Devices. They seem to have been hacked in some way, the way those people in the Control Room have started behaving is not right.’

  He paused, as if steeling himself.

  ‘And Kate, the lady who’s in charge of this facility,’ he began, ‘she hasn’t recognized me yet, but I know her, and she’s a good woman. She and I served in the Army together eighteen years ago, we were part of a team until we got separated after an exercise we were taking part in.

  ‘Last thing I knew, she had been shot dead.’

  20:43 Quadrant 3: White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

  Magnus worked through the data on the screen. Every way he processed this scenario, it took him to the same conclusion. But it seemed incredible, it was simply an option that hadn’t been offered in training.

  Magnus had believed – as had all the other four Custodians – that they were the only ones. They were charged with watching over the world from their bunker in West Virginia. The sirens had sounded at 10:00 local time and, as with the UK, all the bunker staff had gathered at the site already.

  At White Sulphur Springs, the exchange of staff had been a much more managed affair, with Global Consortium personnel replacing military staff at a pre-appointed time. But Magnus, like Kate and the other Custodians, believed that they were alone, that there were no others. Magnus thought that as the major superpower in the world, the United States was alone charged with the role of caretaker of the planet.

  And now, consulting his E-Pad, he was confronted with the astonishing truth. There were three more bunkers, each one controlled by one of the world’s superpowers. Precise locations were not given, but there were bunkers in the UK, USA, China, and Russian Federation.

  He figured that must have taken one of the biggest political charm offensives in the history of the planet. If the impending global catastrophe had not been so unavoidable, perhaps minds would not have been so focused. But the alarming reality of a planet with no more than ten years of life left tends to blow away petty political objections and make consensus more likely. Magnus was too stunned to act for a moment, but then his leadership obligations intervened.

  Directives stated that only in the event of a Tier 10 alert would Custodians become aware of the other bunker facilities. This was such a crisis. His data indicated that the first drones released from their UK location were armed and targeted directly at his installation in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. They would take a few hours to arrive at their final, deadly destination but there was only one course of action permissible: to make immediate contact with the other three bunkers.

  The pre-planning had not allowed for such a terrible scenario, this was supposed to be a routine and non-contentious operation. All countries globally were signed up to this, there was not meant to be any conflict here. So why in the last five minutes that he’d been reading his briefing notes had another cluster of drones been launched from the UK, each one armed and destined for West Virginia?

  Detection

  Kate continued to monitor the screens in front of her, the red device in her neck flashing as her neural pathways were controlled by a force unknown to her and far away. The drones were launching at the rate of one per minute, every one of them programmed to seek and destroy their chosen target. The first wave was heading directly for White Sulphur Springs, the seemingly impregn
able facility so many miles away in West Virginia.

  Had Kate not been under the cerebral and physical control of the device buried inside her, she would have abhorred her actions and been repulsed by the events that she had set in motion. Only an hour beforehand she had been as ignorant as the other Custodians that there were any other similar facilities on the planet. Now it was her primary mission to destroy them, using drones which had been intended for post-terraforming reconnaissance.

  They were there primarily to protect the Earth, not to assist in its destruction.

  All around her, bunker staff went about the jobs prescribed to them via their own Neuronic implants, equally oblivious to the harm they were about to do. They had become involved in the Genesis 2 project because they passionately believed in the greater good. They were in this place, at this time, to protect the planet for future generations.

  It would be challenging, difficult and complex, but at the end of the project they would be able to emerge from the bunker knowing that they had played their part in Man’s greatest ever adventure. Nobody would remember these events, because only the leaders of The Global Consortium would retain knowledge of what had gone on. They were currently asleep, along with the rest of the planet, watched over by teams of specially selected personnel, chosen on the basis of careful psychometric tests over the course of several years.

  Each member country of The Global Consortium would receive full data recordings from the complex matrix of satellites currently in orbit above the Earth, but no other individuals would be party to the whole story about what went on here. That information would be concealed in the annals of the world’s history. Depending on the actions that Kate was about to take, it was possible that no member of The Global Consortium might ever get the chance to view the visual footage showing what happened in Earth’s final hours.

  Screams

  The corridors in the bunker were silent places. Much of the activity centred around the Control Room on Level 2. The majority of the staff were to be found in the canteen area, in the MedLab, and in the security zones, and now that the full briefing had been delivered by Doctor Pierce, a shift pattern was coming into play, as some personnel got ready to retire for the night.

  This was to be a 24/7 operation for the next fourteen days. There was not a huge staff required, but it still numbered 300 in total. The bunker was a quiet place too, so if there was a sound, an alarm or an announcement, it was very dominant and not easily missed.

  It was a good job then that the interrogation room used by the security staff was located at the back of a group of rooms used by that team. If they had been slightly closer to the main corridor, staff finishing their shifts might have been alarmed to hear the agonized cries emanating from those rooms as the bunker’s first captive was interrogated aggressively by the security team.

  Chapter Four

  Falling Out

  The two young children had been left on their own for a very short time in the living room. They were barely walking – more a combination of rolling, pulling and toddling.

  Surrounded by toys, it was a peaceful and harmonious scene when their parents had moved into the kitchen momentarily to make a hot drink and continue their conversation. They wouldn’t be able to do this for much longer, as once the kids were fully mobile, they’d need eyes in the back of their heads.

  All of a sudden, without warning or any kind of build up or provocation, one of the children grabbed a wooden block and dashed it against the head of the other child, who sat there for an instant, stunned and completely taken by surprise. Why would your sibling, who’d been playing quite happily with you only seconds ago, erupt into a spontaneous outburst of unprovoked aggression?

  The dazed silence didn’t last long, and the wounded child soon let out a roar of pain that had both parents back in the room in no time at all.

  They were greeted by a wailing child, blood streaming quite fast from a head wound, and a second child looking innocent and unconcerned, just to the side.

  Both parents were astonished for a while, in that ‘how long did we leave them?’ way that only adults seem to appreciate.

  Both noticed something which really unsettled them later on that day, once they had returned from the hospital where the wounded child needed three stitches. They didn’t talk about it, because parents fear these things in their own children, they’re not aspects of a child’s personality which they will readily acknowledge or admit.

  The child who had inflicted the violent act had actually been smirking when they came in the room, as if that unprovoked and hostile action were actually an achievement or breakthrough. It was as if the child had just discovered violence and found it to be very much to their liking.

  The Second Bunker

  I’m not sure how to respond to Nat’s comment about Doctor Pierce.

  ‘The Devil’ is not really a term used by people who are indifferent in their opinion, and it leaves us with a bit of a dilemma, bearing in mind that one of the people who I really do trust – Dad – told me that I should listen to him. Dad didn’t seem to be under duress in that video he’d sent me. I know Doctor Pierce already from the visits at school and he certainly doesn’t strike me as being anything like the Devil.

  He’s odd, certainly, but there is nothing demonic about him. However, things certainly aren’t what they seem. After all, why would the guy who was my school psychologist be mixed up in something like this? It’s a bit like finding out that your primary school teacher has a secret life as a ninja – in real life things like that just don’t happen.

  ‘What’s the problem with Doctor Pierce?’ I ask. ‘He’s a bit weird, but he seems harmless enough.’

  Nat draws a deep breath, and I become aware that she is much more mature than I am now, she seems more assured, as if she has seen more of the world than me in the time that we have been apart. There is a weariness to her voice, a pain, like she’s holding something back. I sense that she has a lot to tell me, that it could all come flooding out at once, but that she doesn’t know where to start and we just don’t have the time.

  ‘There’s a lot I need to tell you Dan,’ she begins, but she doesn’t get a chance to finish.

  A voice booms out from the announcement system, making us both jump. We thought we were alone down here, so we weren’t expecting anybody else’s voice. It is Doctor Pierce again.

  ‘Quadrants 2, 3 and 4 please assemble for an unscheduled briefing in five minutes,’ he announces. ‘Attendance of all staff is compulsory.’

  The speaker, wherever it is, goes quiet. I look at Nat, she looks at me. The unspoken question just hangs there. Do we trust Doctor Pierce or not? And what’s all this about Quadrants 2, 3 and 4?

  ‘Look Nat,’ I say, ‘whatever you think about Doctor Pierce, he’s our best bet for getting around here. He appears to be in charge of this place, and he certainly seems to think that I’m okay to speak to.

  ‘How about we listen to what he has to say, don’t play awkward, and figure out this thing for ourselves as we go along?’

  Nat considers this, and then drops a bit of a bombshell.

  ‘Nobody knows I’m here yet,’ she begins. ‘I ...’

  She pauses. This is difficult for her, I hate to think what’s been going on since we last saw each other.

  ‘I escaped from them,’ she finally continues. ‘They’re hunting for me.’

  ‘Who’s hunting for you?’ I ask. I really feel like somebody dropped me into the middle of an action movie here and I’m just catching up with the plot.

  ‘Doctor Pierce and the others,’ she carries on. ‘They’ll be very interested to know that I’m here.’

  It’s me who decides to show maturity and good judgement at this point, and not for the first time since all this started kicking off, I see things with clarity.

  ‘Nat, let’s go to the Operations Centre and get this message. You need to stay away from the screens. Let’s make out like I’m on my own still and hear what Pierce ha
s to say. That way we stay in control of this situation, the worst thing that can happen to us is to be separated now. We also need to find Mum before we use these Transporters – if we can group together, we can agree a way ahead in all of this.’

  Nat looks at me and smiles.

  ‘We’ve both done some growing up since we last saw each other Dan,’ she says. ‘It’s great to be back.’

  I feel the same, it’s just amazing to have her back, however it happened and whatever is going on here, it’s just so good to be together again. There will be time to sort all of this out, to catch up and hear Nat’s story, but for now we both know that we have to focus on the pressing issues like finding Mum, Dad, Harriet and David – and we need to figure out what’s going on with Doctor Pierce. These drones, whatever they are, need sorting out too; I have a feeling that if we can hook up as a family again, together with that guy that Mum seems to know, we can figure this out between us. What a family reunion that’s going to be.

  Nat and I head for the Operations Centre on Level 3. As we press the button in the lift, I can tell that she’s as tempted as I am to put those strangely marked buttons to the test, but now is not the time. This must mean I’m becoming more like an adult, however young and daft I still feel at times. There was a time when we’d have pressed those buttons, just for the thrill, like we’d just zoomed off on a brand new fairground ride, not sure if we were going to enjoy it or be terrified, but too young to appreciate the consequences. Now we know that other people are relying on us, it’s not just about us at the moment. I still can’t wait to press those buttons though.

  We make our way to the Operations Centre. I’m not sure if Nat has been here yet, she looks around as we walk, taking it all in. She doesn’t seem surprised by it, and that seems unusual to me. It’s as if she’s seen things like this before.