The Dark Descent

by William Oday

Several somethings bounced down the hall, an irregular cascade of high-pitched tinking and clinking announcing their approach.

  I saw one come to a stop in the hallway outside the door. I snapped my eyes shut and looked away.

  Martinez saw it too, but she was too late.

  47

  The flashbang exploded before she could react.

  A wave of heat spilled into the server room. Even with my eyes squeezed shut, the blinding white light leaked into my pupils. The boom hit my ear drums like a thunderclap.

  I blinked my eyes open to see Martinez leaning against the archway, one hand holding the rifle, the other covering her injured eyes.

  Her mouth hung open in a painful grimace as she groaned.

  “Get in here, Martinez!”

  I knew I’d shouted at the top of my lungs, but it sounded like a whisper echoed from a million miles away. A sound buried under the keening electrical whine arcing through my head.

  She dropped her hand, revealing wide open, unseeing eyes.

  “Finish it now, Crypto!” I said.

  She was a sitting duck out there, waiting for a bullet to find her.

  “Got it!” he shouted with glee.

  The door whooshed shut.

  With Martinez outside.

  “Why did you close the door?”

  “I didn’t! I don’t think I did anyway.”

  Tanaka must’ve been facing away when the flashbang went off as he was looking around in shock, rubbing his ears. “Doctor! Open the door! Now!”

  He saw me waving and I repeated the order. He turned and tapped the button to open the door.

  Nothing.

  He tapped it again. He hammered it with the side of his fist.

  Still nothing.

  “Crypto, what did you do?” I yelled.

  “I didn’t do that! Not on purpose, anyway!”

  “Well, get it open again!”

  “I’m trying!”

  “You!” I yelled at the engineer cowering on the floor in the corner.

  He shook his head and curled into a tighter ball, murmuring something to himself over and over.

  He wasn’t a soldier. And understandably, he was in the grips of a terror like nothing he’d ever experienced before.

  “Get over here or I’ll rip your arms off!”

  Terror had levels.

  My threat (promise, really) succeeded in breaking through because he crawled over.

  I dragged him into place next to me. “Don’t move!”

  He nodded.

  “Get on him, Crypto!”

  The nimble feet on my back leaped away and I was up and moving to the door an instant later.

  I smashed my finger on the button to open it.

  No response.

  I looked out the small window.

  Martinez was pressed into the tight corner, still recovering from the explosion.

  “Get the damn door open!” I shouted.

  “I’m trying! I don’t know what happened!”

  A wave of soldiers appeared around the corner. The one in the lead kicked Martinez’s rifle away and then swung the butt of his rifle up at her head. It caught her flush under the chin.

  Her head snapped back and she collapsed like her bones had turned to jelly.

  The soldier looked through the window with a satisfied scowl on his face.

  My legs went wobbly. The pitch of the ringing in my ears slid up and down the scale. Like the blaring sirens I’d heard in the Oval Office.

  I blinked a few times.

  I was seeing things.

  Right?

  Nothing else made sense.

  The flashbang hit me harder than I thought.

  There was no other explanation.

  The soldier on the other side of the door tapped the glass and waved. His mouth made the shape of saying Hi but I couldn’t hear it.

  Was I losing my mind?

  He grinned and his eyes flashed with amusement.

  I’d gone crazy. I couldn’t come up with anything else. Because standing on the other side of the door, looking at me through the window, was someone I never expected to see.

  Me.

  He was me.

  Or maybe I was him.

  Was this what going insane felt like?

  Like a fragile tether held my mind rooted to the firm ground of reality. But now it had been cut and I drifted through insubstantial fog with no feeling for what was up or down or real or not.

  The reality that had felt so horribly firm seconds ago now seemed no more substantial than a gossamer cloth billowing in a ripping wind.

  Did I have a twin?

  Like Crypto’s two bodyguards?

  The man standing outside the door made that an obvious answer. But why didn’t I remember him before?

  What was his name?

  And why did he seem so happy about knocking out Martinez and having me cornered?

  Wouldn’t it be safe to assume that we’d have each other’s backs no matter what? Like Crypto’s guys obviously did.

  The look of scorn on the other me’s face proved that assumption false.

  General Curtis appeared behind him. He said something and my twin turned away.

  He lifted the unconscious Martinez roughly with an arm wrapped around her. Her head hung limply on her chest. Blood dripping down her front.

  General Curtis approached the door, his eyes burning with hatred. “I want this door open!”

  An engineer scurried over and swiped his badge. He swiped again. He swiped several times. He turned to Curtis and shrugged, his head low and submissive.

  Curtis smacked him across the face with the back of his hand, sending the guy sprawling.

  I stood there, dumbstruck and staring. My brain not working. Numb from shock.

  The general turned away, nodding toward Martinez.

  The other me. The one out there. My twin nodded confirmation. He put a pistol against Martinez’s head.

  Curtis turned back to the door. “Open the door! Or she dies! Don’t make the mistake of thinking I won’t do it!”

  “I’ve got it now!” Crypto said. “I think I can open it!”

  I ran to the end of the aisle and saw him with a pointer finger descending toward the keyboard.

  “Stop!”

  His hand froze in position. “What?”

  CHOICES:

  1. Tell Crypto not to open it. General Curtis might not kill her. And even if he does, opening the door means we’ll all die.

  2. Tell Crypto to open it. I can’t let Martinez die for me. I’d rather surrender and face whatever comes next.

  The group chose #2 and this is what happened next…

  48

  I glanced over my shoulder at Crypto. “Can you cut the lights in this sector?”

  The keys clacked in response. “Yeah, I think so.”

  General Curtis pounded on the door. “Time’s up! Open it or she dies!”

  I spoke to Crypto in a voice low enough to ensure I wouldn’t be heard in the hallway outside. “When I say, cut the lights and open the door at the same time.”

  Crypto’s eyes narrowed with doubt. “You sure?”

  I nodded and then turned back to face Curtis through the glass. “We’re opening it! Don’t hurt her!”

  The general’s hard eyes showed the merest flicker of satisfaction. He took a step back.

  I peered through the glass, marking the locations of the general, of the man who looked like me holding Martinez with a pistol to her head, of the four other soldiers that I could see through the small window in the door.

  In seconds, I formulated a plan of attack. The target order. The relative positions of each target as I moved from one to the next. The decreasing odds of using the pistol on the first target, then the second, then the third, and on. The hand-to-hand alternatives that would be just as deadly.

  I checked the chamber and verified it was hot.

  One hand with the pistol. One hand on the door. I took a deep breath an
d centered my focus. Like a lens bringing light to a burning point.

  Victory or defeat a meaningless future concept.

  Only action in the…

  “Now.”

  A burst of keystrokes and the areas on both sides of the door cut to black.

  The muscles throughout my body tensed, ready to spring.

  Shouting outside.

  Someone bumped into the door.

  My palm waited for the door to slide open.

  Nothing.

  Gunshots.

  Two blinding flashes of light. Sharp flowers of fire that left a fading afterimage in the inky darkness.

  The door still hadn’t moved!

  “Open the door!” I shouted.

  “It should’ve opened!” Crypto replied.

  Narrow shafts of light cut through the black. Flashlights swinging back and forth, bouncing glowing light off the walls and floor and ceiling.

  “Open it!” I repeated, knowing it was too late.

  A silhouette moved on the other side of the door. The shadowed glass revealing the truth of my sinking feeling.

  A streak of blood on the floor where Martinez had been seconds ago.

  I pressed my face against the thick glass to see to the side as much as possible.

  A shaft of light traced across the floor.

  Martinez’s body, face down. Her legs limps and twisted in an unnatural way.

  The glow bounced up to the man that mirrored my appearance. He grabbed one of her boots and glanced back. A twisted grin and then he dragged her body down the hall and out of sight.

  I pounded on the door, screaming my lungs out. “No! No! I’ll kill you!”

  The beams of light moved, coalescing on the other side of the door.

  General Curtis stepped forward. “I told you not to test me. Her death is your fault, Scout. How many more innocent people will have to die for you? Open the door.”

  “Open the door! Open it!” I said.

  I wanted, no needed, the door open so I could get my hands around the general’s neck and squeeze, tighter and tighter, until his eyes bulged out and his face turned purple. Until veins popped out on his forehead. Tighter still as he struggled to break free.

  Squeezing like a vise through the shuddering convulsions and watching with pleasure while his eyes went dull and empty. Until his body went limp with a final surrender.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t,” Crypto said from the shadows.

  I pounded on the door with impotent rage. I’d done nothing to save her. And she’d paid the ultimate price for it.

  I spun around and fell back against the wall. Rage thundered in my ears while mute despair silenced my heart.

  With nothing to be done, the despair won out.

  I slumped to the floor, pinched my eyes shut and dropped my head into my hands.

  “There’s no escape,” the general said. “And we’ll get the door open sooner or later. Why postpone the inevitable?”

  I barely heard him.

  All I could see and hear were the gunshots and her body being dragged away.

  Crypto’s typing slowly puttered out and finally stopped. “I don’t understand it. The code. It’s like a living brain. The pathways and subroutines fragile like neural pathways. I think when I hack through a command, it destroys that pathway. The code seems to reorganize and rebuild functionality around the destroyed sections. It’s like a brain rewiring itself after traumatic injury. I think that’s why my override commands only work once or twice.”

  The volume of his voice changed as he continued. “I’m sorry, Scout. I really am.”

  My reply came out before I could cut it off. “Yeah, well, being sorry isn’t going to bring Martinez back, now is it?”

  I pressed my lips shut, wanting to say more, wanting to spit out the bile building in the back of my throat.

  But, no. Blaming him didn’t help anything.

  General Curtis’ voiced seeped through the sealed door. “I want four guards posted here. Nobody comes in or out without my permission. Get a team up here with plasma cutters. I want this door down yesterday!”

  A flurry of voices as the Grays outside hurried to carry out his orders.

  The dim figure of Doctor Tanaka eased down beside me. “I’m sorry, Scout. She was a good person.”

  I nodded in somber silence. Still not trusting what I might say.

  “How are you feeling?” Tanaka said.

  “It just happened, doc. Don’t you think it’s a little early for psychotherapy?”

  “I’m talking about physically. From your injuries.”

  “Oh,” I said as I scanned my body. I shrugged. “I’ve been better.”

  “I’m sure you have. As your doctor, I have to remind you that you need rest. You need time to recuperate.”

  “Do you really think I’m going to be able to take a few weeks to heal up and then everything will be fine? Do you think General Curtis is going to let that happen?”

  He didn’t respond. Which was an answer all its own.

  “Exactly.”

  I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. My body felt heavy and empty, like a dead battery. The chemistry spent. The current drained.

  What next?

  What was the point of even thinking about it?

  Martinez was dead and we were trapped. General Curtis would have the door cut open and then we’d be captured.

  Or killed, more likely.

  The image of the other me came to mind. The fiend. The savage that I wanted to hurt more than anything and anyone.

  “Who was the man out there that looks like me?”

  “Skain?” Tanaka said.

  “Is that his name?”

  “You don’t remember?”

  “No.”

  “He’s your brother, an identical twin. Though you two are opposites in many ways.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “How you relate to authority, for one. Skain has always struck me as someone who relishes following orders. You, not so much.”

  “How else?”

  “Your inclinations, for another. Skain has always had a darker side to how he views life and how best to deal with it.”

  “How is our relationship?”

  “You were inseparable as children. Though, it seemed age and experience drew you apart. These are just my observations as an outsider. I don’t know the details of your relationship.”

  “Why would my own brother, my twin, stand against me?”

  “I’m sure he believes that you’re a traitor. A danger to this community. I think a man with his convictions could do anything that his beliefs justified.”

  If I could get to him, and stop myself from killing him, was there a way to get through? To bring him over to our side?

  Surely, he knew me like no one else. And I him.

  Normally, anyway. Right now, he was a demented phantasm of reflected likeness. A murderer in my mirror.

  “Hey!” Crypto said from his perch. “Come here! Look at this!”

  I clambered up and shuffled over to join him. “What is it?”

  “I’ve been surfing the network, trying to figure out how to manipulate the code without destroying it. No luck yet, but I did just run into a message flagged as urgent and it’s using a pathetic encryption algorithm. I swear these people have no idea. They’re still using Fourfish with 512 bit blocks. I had that cracked like a split nut years ago. You’d think they’d go with something more secure, like 5D AES with 2 factor authenticated keys. I mean, it’s laughable when you think—”

  “Crypto! What did you find?” I asked, not wanting to hear any more about the tragic state of encryption on the network.

  “Oh, yeah! Sorry!” The clacking of keys went quiet and his face turned from the glow of the screen, leaving half in light and half in shadow. “It’s Martinez! She’s alive!”

  49

  I grabbed the stack of servers as a wave of dizziness hit. “What do you mean?”


  Crypto turned back to the screen with me looking on over his shoulder. He clicked a few keys and scrolled up a time stamped log of communication packets sent over the network. He poked the screen with a thick, stubby finger. “Look at this one!” He pointed at the time stamp. “It got sent a few minutes ago.” He clicked another succession of keys and the screen filled with the details of the entry.

  Martinez secured. Ready for questioning. Orders?

  “Where is she?” I asked.

  He clicked out of the entry and the screen filled with the scrolling log of archived communications. Older entries slid off the bottom of the screen as new ones populated at the top.

  “Don’t know yet.”

  “Then find out!”

  “Didn’t we already cover the concept of you yelling at me not helping?”

  “Sorry.” The word came out flat, obligatory and devoid of feeling.

  “Now, was that so hard?” Crypto asked with a patronizing tone.

  “Careful.”

  “I liked you better when you were fake apologizing.”

  I watched the screen as his fingers danced over the keyboard. I didn’t much care how he felt about me, so long as he figured out where they were holding Martinez.

  “Here we go!” Crypto said after he chose an entry and jumped into its details.

  I’ll be there soon. Keep this quiet.

  I read the line, vaguely wondering if my molars would crack from clenching my jaws so hard.

  “I think that’s from General Curtis,” Crypto said. “Hard to say for sure as there’s just the numerical ID for the sender’s tag. I could try to cross-reference it with previous messages to verify.”

  “Don’t waste your time,” I replied. “She’s alive and I’m going after her.”

  “How? There’s no way out.”

  I clicked on my flashlight and shined it around the server room. Rows of floor to ceiling computers. Smooth black faces of polished plastic and metal. Lights blinking on and off, flashing signals of a functioning electronic brain.

  And only the one door.

  One way in and one way out.

  I walked down each aisle ending at the last one. Each looked exactly the same as any other. And that was it.

  It wasn’t a big space. And there was just the one door. Data security outweighed the benefits of personnel having multiple points of egress. The choice made sense. These computers controlled vital systems. Electronic messages sent at the speed of light that tied the disparate pieces into a functioning whole.