The Secret Bunker Trilogy

by Paul Teague

  21:52 Quadrant 4: Dixia Cheng, Beijing

  Xiang looked nervously at the dots on her screen. They appeared so harmless at the moment, but she knew that each of those dots represented a heavily armed drone. Currently they were clustered over Denmark; they’d strike all of the bunkers within two to three hours of each other. There must have been over forty drones heading towards the USA, many more towards Europe. She knew that shortly the larger cluster would separate off, and one group would head for Crimea, while the other would be targeted at her own base in Beijing. Such massive firepower: heavily armed and destined for just three locations.

  She’d had some time to think through what Doctor Pierce had said in his announcement, after giving her own personnel a briefing about security, extended shift times, and several other matters connected with their current level of alert. Although she was trained to respond to rapidly changing events like these – indeed she’d been selected because of her exemplary response in simulated situations just like this – she couldn’t help feeling a deep sense of the gravity of this situation.

  Quadrant 4 was the science sector. That had seemed less relevant when this mission began, because she and her team were supposed to be working in isolation, sole guardians of the Earth as the terraforming took place. When she’d read the briefing notes for a Tier 10 alert, she’d been shocked to discover the real purpose of her own bunker.

  Dixia Cheng was also known as the ‘Underground City’. It was a network of tunnels constructed under Beijing during the 1970s and open to the public for several years until it was closed for ‘renovation’. This entire, massive facility had been hiding in open view. Unknown to the citizens above, it had been extended, fortified, upgraded, and secured for some future event, and all of this had gone on in open sight.

  She was accustomed to assimilating all manner of difficult data quickly, efficiently and dispassionately, but, in spite of that, the information in Xiang’s briefing notes made her gasp. Xiang – who had seen friends imprisoned and executed and comrades tortured and maimed – couldn’t believe the secret that had been concealed from all of the staff in her Quadrant. The underground facility of which she was Custodian in Dixia Cheng, Beijing, housed enough human and animal embryos to repopulate the entire planet twice over.

  Chapter Six

  Exhaustion

  James was exhausted and weak. He’d gone from being an integral part of a top secret project to ‘the enemy’ in just a matter of hours and the bruises and cuts on his body told him that he really wasn’t welcome in the bunker now.

  The security guards who’d questioned and tormented him seemed to show a horrible spite and contempt that he simply hadn’t detected before his capture. He felt as though somebody had flicked a switch and all of a sudden these regular people had become contaminated with the vitriol and hatred of somebody else altogether. He could tell that they were not acting on their own initiative – or even ‘just following orders’. He was sure that those pulsating lights in their necks that he and Amy had spotted earlier were responsible for whatever was happening here. There was a definite and strong red pulse there now, it had happened since events had taken a dramatic turn in the Control Room, directly after the 20:00 briefing there.

  James knew the game – he’d been working with the military long enough. He had to keep the interrogation process going as long as he could, to maintain the suspicion that he might know something vital. Once they believed they’d extracted all useful information from him, the chances were that he’d be disposed of in some way. The best he could hope for was the BioFiltration Area, but bearing in mind that the last thing he’d just seen in the Control Room was the switching off of life support systems in that area, it was not looking good.

  Dazed and weary, James’s mind forced itself into action. His survival depended on him thinking clearly. They’d left him alone in a holding cell now. Still the intimidation continued with the lights turned up far too bright. He had to close his eyes tight and turn towards the wall to give himself the space and focus to think.

  When you’re in a tight corner, you need to work through the options very quickly and thoroughly. This is what he and Amy had done all those years ago, when under terrible and immediate threat of violence.

  ‘What are the options here?’ James asked himself.

  He guessed that Amy had been apprehended. He had no idea what had happened to her after that. All of the civilians would be dead within an hour or so, now that the BioFiltration Area had been effectively sabotaged on Kate’s orders. So far, it wasn’t looking good. Any hope of help was looking limited and even if he managed to escape, where would they go? If they stepped beyond the bunker doors, they’d succumb to the darkness outside – although Amy and the child had been fine. That was interesting, he’d not really thought about that before. How had Amy and her daughter done that?

  Could it be anything to do with the pulsating lights in their necks? Amy’s light was blue, his was blue, but the lights in the necks of all the other bunker staff – as far as he’d managed to observe so far – were red. What was the difference?

  He and Amy seemed immune to whatever it was that was controlling the other bunker staff. Amy had been immune from the darkness beyond the bunker doors. If only he could get a closer look at her daughter. If she had a blue light in her neck, maybe that was the secret to being able to beat the darkness outside? But how would you even see out there, even if you could avoid going into stasis once you’d been exposed?

  He’d have to park these thoughts, they were interesting, but not useful right now. His only hope, it seemed to him, was the boy – Dan. And there was the other child who came in with Amy – where was she? Neither of those seemed to be a very good prospect. Surely the youngsters would be apprehended quite soon now. Kate wouldn’t tolerate children in this environment. They’d probably end up the same as the rest of their family, currently dying slowly in the BioFiltration Area.

  It was clear to James what needed to be done. His body ached, he was bruised, hurt and tired. But he was still alive. He’d exaggerated how hurt he’d been to buy himself this thinking time. They’d be back shortly to start their bullying and questioning again. They’d give him just enough time to recover, but they’d be back, they weren’t finished yet.

  No, it was quite clear to him now, nobody was going to come and save him. He’d have to use the few advantages that he had. The light was ridiculously bright but he was used to it. When the guards re-entered the room, it would take them a few vital seconds to adjust their eyes as the lights were normalized. He’d given the impression that they’d hurt him more than they had. Yes, he was sore, wounded and aching, but he could still run and fight if he had to.

  The doors opened suddenly and James knew exactly what he had to do. He rushed at the guards before they even had a moment to adjust to the new lighting levels and see where James was in the room. He caught them completely by surprise. As he’d faced the wall with his eyes shut, he knew that effectively, he was about to make his bid for freedom completely blind.

  He was going to do four things. He needed to focus: four things, one after the other, no pauses or hesitation.

  First, the minute the doors opened, navigating by sound alone, he would rush directly at the guards, with all the force that he could muster.

  Secondly, and probably with only partial vision at that time, he would grab a weapon which the guards would be holding roughly at waist level.

  Third, he would fire it immediately to buy time and create panic among anybody else in the area.

  By this time he should have recovered enough sight to figure out where to run.

  So fourth, find the exit, fire wildly, and run for your life.

  Ahead

  I wish I could get Doctor Pierce in a room for five minutes and just ask him a few basic questions. I keep being given these snatches of information, but I never seem to get the full picture. It’s like he’s giving me individual pieces to a jigsaw when all I really wan
t is the box with the picture on the front so that I can see what the finished thing looks like.

  I quickly run through the information that he’s given me. He doesn’t seem to know about Nat for starters. That doesn’t tally with what Nat is telling me. She hates him and blames him for whatever happened to her. Yet just a few moments ago he referred to her as if she’s dead. Is he messing with me here? He thinks I think that Nat is dead. So that would explain that, maybe he’s covering himself, just to be sure.

  The best policy for now is to keep Nat hidden from him, so that we maintain that advantage at least. And where is Doctor Pierce? Where is he broadcasting from? He seems to have some ‘access all areas’ control. Presumably he can use security cameras and the like. But he still seems to think that I am the key, and Nat too by the sound of it. What is it about Nat and me that makes us central to all of this?

  Okay, enough of the questions Dan, it’s time for action. I was able to get the gist of what Doctor Pierce was saying in his main broadcast, and similarly, Nat seems to have been able to tune her ears into what Doctor Pierce was saying to me among the bedlam of all these voices and screens. Why didn’t somebody leave the remote control somewhere where we could find it?

  I might be leaping to conclusions here, but I reckon that the faces on the three screens are the Custodians of the other Quadrants. It would make sense. Kate must be our Custodian, she seems to be in charge here. I’m guessing that Magnus is the smaller guy on the screens in front of me. He looks more like he might be into technology, and the other guy looks like he lifts weights and can handle a bit of manual labour. Yes, Magnus must be the geek type … I can recognize ‘my people’ a mile away.

  So Magnus is Quadrant 3. He has a faint yellow light in his neck. It’s not glowing at the moment, it seems dormant. I’ll need to remember that, it might mean that he’s working with Kate. Great, now how do we communicate with him?

  Nat starts to speak, her mind must be racing too.

  ‘Dan, remember the buttons in the lifts?’ she begins.

  I certainly do. I think Nat is heading where I’m heading on this one.

  ‘What Pierce said about needing my DNA …’

  Interesting, she clearly dislikes this man, she’s dropping the ‘Doctor’ now.

  ‘He doesn’t know I’m here with you, so you already have my DNA – it’s me! I reckon if we use the lifts, touch the weird buttons at the top together, then press the buttons with the numbers on, it’ll take us to the other Quadrants.’

  Okay, that’s not quite the leap I made, Nat is way ahead of me. If I’m going to be the hero that Doctor Pierce seems to think I am, I’ll have to get a lot smarter and a lot quicker by the look of it. And Nat is already ahead of me in those departments. I’m not so sure.

  ‘It makes sense,’ Nat continues. ‘In fact we may not even need the lift, the Transporters might do it.’

  ‘I don’t know where I was before, but I’d transported somewhere else that looked just like this … it must have been one of the other Quadrants!’

  Okay, I’m warming to this idea now.

  ‘We need to find Mum and that James guy though,’ I interrupt, cutting Nat off in full flow. ‘I thought we’d agreed that?’

  Nat pauses. It’s funny being our age, because we still have that ‘kid thing’ where you want to rush at everything now, this minute, as soon as possible. But a wiser voice is there now too. It must be maturity intervening, because as much as we want to try out Nat’s idea and meet Magnus, we know in our hearts that we must take care of the people closest to us first.

  ‘So,’ I begin, ‘Comms-Tabs first like Doctor Pierce suggested, then we find Mum or that guy James she was with, and try to re-group.’

  Nat nods in agreement.

  ‘Then we hook up with Magnus,’ I finish.

  ‘And do whatever we can to sort out these drones,’ Nat adds. ‘This is not quite the reunion I was expecting Dan!’

  I know what she means. We’ve barely had time to say ‘Hello’. Now here we are trying to save the other Quadrants from a drone attack. I haven’t even seen a real drone before, let alone stopped an attack by one. Still, follow the plan, Dan. Keep moving forwards, you know the next steps.

  Magnus can help and if I can find Mum or Dad, even better, we can solve this together.

  Nat and I head for the Weaponry Room which I’ve seen before, but now I know I’m looking for something called Comms-Tabs. I wonder for a moment if we should take some weaponry – will it come in useful at some point? I’ve had one of those guns pointed at me in this place; you don’t stop to ask questions when you can see the small, red dot of a laser targeting system resting on your forehead. It seems laughable to even consider this – what would Nat and I even do with a weapon? But she’s ahead of me already and she goes immediately for a small, handheld unit, which looks a bit like a heavy duty stapler.

  ‘What are we going to do Nat, staple them to the wall?’ I ask, wondering if now is an appropriate time for humour. Nat smiles. It seems that now is a good time for humour. She chuckles, then says, ‘I’ve seen one of these things in action. They’re nasty and painful little critters.’

  ‘They’re like tasers,’ she continues, looking at it in her hand. ‘They give you a sharp and nasty stun, and they can knock you back for quite some time.’

  Those words hang in the air again. What was Nat doing that resulted in her being around when one of these things was being used?

  ‘I sound like I’m some sort of expert, I’m really not!’ she laughs, and the mood lightens. It’s so good having Nat back, it’s like we just picked up where we left off, there’s so much I want to ask her, but our connection has been immediate, even though we’ve been apart for so long.

  She navigates her way around this area with ease and Nat knows exactly what the Comms-Tabs are. They just peel off and stick to the palm of your hand. Nat raises her hand towards her mouth and speaks into hers. I hear her voice in front of me and from a secondary source, but I’m not sure how, it’s not coming out of a speaker as far as I can tell.

  ‘Clever things these,’ says Nat. ‘I’ve never used them myself before but I’ve seen them used by other people. The guards I mean.’

  Again, a hint of a story as yet untold. Soon Nat, we’ll have time soon.

  ‘I’m not entirely sure, but they seem to hook in on that first test, so yours and mine are now connected. We can talk to each other, and I suggest we take a few more in case we hook up with Mum or anybody else who can help.

  ‘You don’t receive the message via a speaker or an earpiece though; it seems to transmit the message directly to your brain, like it bypasses your ear drum and skips straight to the bit where the brain translates the message. Incredible stuff. I saw the guards using them – I wasn’t quite sure how they worked, they seemed to be talking to themselves, like a fancy Bluetooth system.’

  This kit is amazing. We both take a few of the Comms-Tabs so we have spares and we both take two of the taser devices as they’re quite compact and fit in a pocket. It feels like we’re getting ‘tooled up’ as they do in the movies. I hope we don’t mess it up. Knowing my luck, right at the crucial moment I’ll taser myself.

  ‘Okay, we’re good to go!’ says Nat, and we head out of the Weaponry Room, into the curving corridor and towards the lift. When we’re in the lift, we look at each other and smile. We know that we must find Mum first. But we’ve just got to try out Nat’s theory.

  Nat puts her hand on the panel with the weird markings. The lift jolts, just like it did when I tried it the first time. I place my hand on the panel while Nat’s is still there. Nothing happens.

  Nat moves her hand, initially in disappointment, but when she does, the lift jolts again. Incredibly, we are then surrounded by what I can only describe as an amazing haze of lights. Each of the edges of the lift illuminates, emitting a wonderful array of colours.

  Nat presses the button marked ‘1’ but the lift doesn’t move. Instead, the wonderful patterns
of light fill the lift, then everything stops and we appear to be where we were when we started. Only the doors open, and standing in front of us is the man called Magnus.

  22:07 Quadrant 4: Dixia Cheng, Beijing

  Xiang made sure that her bunker staff were on task and that the drones were being fully monitored, then stepped out of the Control Room to give herself some time to think and reflect. She was stunned to learn that her facility housed thousands, maybe even millions, of embryos, human and animal, and she could barely contemplate why that would be.

  She knew the basics of the Genesis 2 project, but only since she’d received Tier 10 access in the light of the drone attack had the full responsibility dawned upon her. There were four bunkers – the four Quadrants of the Genesis 2 project – so she and her team were not alone in this.

  Xiang was a scientist, but also a soldier and a leader. Her exceptional skills and ability in her field of expertise had resulted in her being courted at a very young age by the military, or at least an organization which appeared to be military in nature.

  She was one of a new generation of synthetic biologists and geneticists, a deeply controversial role which resulted in furious accusations of ‘playing God’ and ‘toying with life’. Much as animal testing had been condemned, so was her work in the private sector, to such an extent that she had tired of being hounded by the medical press and persecuted by the public.

  It had been a relief to be approached by the military – or whoever they were – and to be able to progress her work in peace and with full funding. She believed in the good of what she was doing.

  Xiang understood that with science came responsibility, but her genuine belief was that her work could help humanity, not threaten it. She didn’t need to seek a full briefing about why this bunker held these embryos. This was a project that she’d been working on, but all of the teams involved had been isolated, much like the four bunkers were now. So they knew enough to play their part, but not enough to see the full picture.