Berenger smirked. “So, you’re willing to meet me half-way on this one?”
“Just this once. So long as you agree to let me get a few shots in. This piece of squick needs to suffer for what he’s done.”
“On that, you and I are of a mind,” replied Berenger. “You ready?”
“Open the door.”
Berenger hit the button on the blast door’s access panel and the door’s two sides parted in the middle and slid into the walls. The Rangers rushed forward, their weapons ready, but stopped short when they realized what had been behind the entrance.
The room they’d just entered was filled with dataservers, each standing a good twelve feet tall and glowing with green cables that seemed to be pumping some type of super-cooling fluid through them as the machinery the servers housed whirred and hummed. On the side of the room opposite the blast door was a large computer station with a massive display screen mounted before it, lines of bright green digital code racing down the screen’s face. Despite all the curious sights within the room, the one thing neither of them saw was a person manning any of it.
Berenger and Deckland both looked at one another, a sense of frustration shared between them once they realized they were alone and the bunker was abandoned. Both men holstered their weapons. Deckland glanced around warily at the massive dataservers, confused by the discovery.
“What are these?” Deckland asked. “I’ve never seen dataservers like this.”
“Neither have I,” said Berenger as he also studied them. “But I can tell you this – they’re some of the most advanced I’ve ever seen. The processing power that would require this kind of internal cooling… it’s pushing into quantum computer territory.”
“And what would this place need with that type of computing power?”
“Hard to say,” Berenger said as he turned his attention toward the computer station. “But this here may hold some answers.”
Berenger took a seat at the station, pulling his interface cable from his bionic arm and plugging it into the console. After a few moments connecting to the console, Berenger shook his head.
“Hot diggity,” he muttered.
“What is it? What did you find?”
“All types of stuff,” Berenger replied. “Too much for the small drives in my bionics to copy and store, but I’ll try to get the important stuff.”
“Is there information on there about Roseca?” Deckland inquired. “About what killed those kids?”
“Yep,” Berenger replied. “There’s all types of records on here… and something else too…”
“What?” asked Deckland.
“It’s a highly encrypted ultrawave broadcast,” Berenger said. “This station is uploading the data from these servers somewhere off-planet.”
“An ultrawave broadcast?” Deckland said. “Shouldn’t we have picked that up from your ship? Even if it is encrypted?”
“It’s a directional broadcast. This place is using an extremely focused ultrawave to transmit its data someplace specific. No one would ever find it unless they knew where to look.”
“Where is it transmitting to? The people behind this might be at that location.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Berenger said. “This level of encryption is still too advanced for me. But I might be able to get a trajectory of the broadcast, which we could follow. Give me a second…”
As Berenger tapped on the touchscreen of his bionic arm, the encrypted code on the computer screen flickered for a moment while he attempted to trace the broadcast. Then, the faint whine of speakers being turned on sounded out and a modulated computerized voice emanated from somewhere, its dark tone spreading throughout the room.
“Stygaard, what do you think you’re doing?” it said.
The Rangers looked around them for the source of the voice before they noticed the encrypted code on the visual display had morphed into the shape of a faceless figure that extruded from the still running code, as though there were a ghost inside the machine.
“Hmmmmm… you’re not Stygaard,” the modulated voice from the speakers stated, the figure within the code turning its head as if to look at Berenger and Deckland in turn.
The two men exchanged a curious look as Deckland moved to Berenger’s side. They both turned their attention back to the faceless man on the visual display.
“What gave us away?” asked Berenger.
“The only living being to ever enter that lab is Stygaard,” the figure said. “And aside from the fact that he’s nowhere near as rugged as you, there is only one of him.”
Berenger glanced down at the bottom of the visual display’s frame where a tiny camera was built into it, a pinhole-sized green light shining by its lens, indicating it was active.
“You can see us, but we can’t see you,” Berenger said. “Seems a bit one-sided, don’t you think?”
“When one is in a position such as I, anonymity has its benefits.”
“I suppose if I were mutilating children, I’d want to be anonymous, too,” growled Deckland.
A chuckle emanated from the computer speakers. “It is obvious you have no concept of the work being done there. But I must admit, you have sparked my curiosity. Who are you?”
“Tell you what… you give us your name, and we’ll give you ours,” Berenger goaded.
“I am one who goes by so many names, I wouldn’t even know which to give you.”
“One of those names wouldn’t happen to be ‘Archeron’, would it?” asked Deckland.
The figure on the screen tilted its head to the side slightly, as though curious at Deckland’s statement. “Well now, that reply has revealed to me precisely who you two are.”
“Has it?” asked Berenger, skeptically. “And just who are we?”
“Men who are someplace they shouldn’t be, who know things they shouldn’t know,” the figure said. “And as far as this conversation is concerned, that is all the information about you I require.”
The noise of an automated door hissing open sounded out. Deckland and Berenger turned to see a compartment against the wall, which had at first appeared to be part of one of the dataservers, open up to reveal a charging station housing a large robot within it.
Its body was made from shiny chrome metal, and it stood seven feet tall. It was shaped like a person, with broad shoulders, two arms, and two legs. Its face consisted of a single visor which glowed red as it came to life. A small visual display within the charging station read:
>>>CARETAKER: ACTIVATE
>>>DEFENSE MODE
>>>DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED
“Oh… squick,” Deckland muttered as the robot looked toward him and his partner.
Deckland went to draw his blaster from its holster, but the robot moved too quickly for him, sprinting forward and grabbing Deckland’s jacket before hurling him into a wall. Deckland hit the girded rock hard, shocks of pain shooting up his back and into his skull as he crumpled to the floor.
A plasma cannon popped up from the robot’s forearm, its dual barrels aimed at Deckland to finish him off while he was stunned. Before the robot could kill Deckland, Berenger was on the move, grabbing the robot’s wrist with his bionic arm and pulling it to the side just as the robot fired. The plasma blasts went wide and struck one of the dataservers with a bright explosion of sparks.
Berenger quickly clamped his bionic hand onto the barrels of the robot’s plasma cannon and squeezed, crunching them together and preventing their further use. However, the robot used that opportunity to elbow Berenger in the face, dazing him before grabbing him by the throat.
Berenger grunted as the robot lifted him off his feet and rammed him into the damaged dataserver with such force that the dataserver’s frame crumpled slightly. From its free arm, the robot ejected an electro-blade, which crackled to life. Berenger quickly grabbed the bladed arm with his bionic one, the electrified knife inches away from his neck. He desperately struggled with his normal hand to keep the robot from crushing h
is throat as he wrestled with his bionic hand to keep from being stabbed.
Suddenly, Deckland was at his side, the Ranger jamming his blaster pistol into the joint of the robot’s bladed arm and firing multiple times, melting the robotic arm at its elbow and severing the forearm.
The robot turned and flung Berenger into Deckland, sending both Rangers to the ground. A stun rod extended from the robot’s remaining arm as it raised it up, readying for a strike. Berenger got to his knees just as the robot swung downward. He lifted his arm, deflecting the robot’s blow as the stun rod barely grazed the shoulder of his longcoat, scorching it as it passed.
Berenger popped the taser prongs from the knuckles of his bionic hand and brought his fist up in an uppercut, landing the prongs under the chin of the robot’s head. The body of the robot shook as the electric charge from the taser rippled through it, but the shock was not a powerful enough to disable it.
Before the robot could finish reeling back to hit Berenger with its stun rod, Deckland was behind it, wielding the electro-blade that was still attached to the robot’s severed arm and jamming it into the robot’s back underneath its chassis.
The robot stumbled backward as the remaining charge from the electro-blade coursed through it, its internal machinery beginning to smoke. Without wasting another moment, Berenger tossed Deckland one of his blaster pistols and the lawmen turned in tandem, unloading into their robotic attacker.
The robot suddenly exploded, the small detonation catching both Rangers off-guard and knocking them to the ground.
Deckland and Berenger groaned as they recovered. Their ears rang from the robot’s destruction, but despite some bumps and bruises, they were unharmed. As they both sat up and collected their weapons, the figure on the large visual display spoke once more.
“How unexpected,” it said.
Berenger and Deckland turned to look at the faceless figure on the screen, which loomed before them ominously.
“This would have been more convenient had the bunker’s caretaker killed you,” the figure said. “But unfortunately, you’ve left me no other option.”
The Rangers pulled themselves back up to their feet. “And what option might that be?” Berenger growled.
“The one that costs me a very expensive testing lab,” the figure replied. “Farewell, gentlemen.”
With that, the image of the figure disappeared along with the code on the screen. In its place was a prompt that began to receive commands, which rapidly scrolled downward on the screen. Neither Ranger could make out what was being input, but they were able to catch certain words, such as:
>>>OVERLOAD
>>>BYPASS SAFETY PROTOCOLS
>>>INITIATE SELF-DESTRUCT
“Squick on me!” snarled Berenger as he turned toward Deckland. “Run! RUN!!!”
Deckland did not need to be told twice. He and Berenger sprinted from the room, racing down the bunker’s corridors as the surrounding walls began to rumble and the whine of generators reaching critical overload grew louder.
“HURRY!” Deckland called to his partner. “MOVE!!!”
Berenger picked up the pace, his face drawn tightly as he struggled to keep up with Deckland while they ran through the bunker’s hangar. Explosions rang out around them as the entire lair shook, dust and rocks raining down from above as the mountain around them trembled.
Deckland outpaced his partner, racing down the hallway to the bunker’s exit and quickly pulling the lever to the door to unlock it, shouldering it open.
“COME ON!” Deckland shouted.
“GO!” screamed Berenger as explosions rumbled within the hangar. “GO! GO! GO!!!”
But Deckland waited, grabbing his partner as soon as he crossed the threshold and racing along with him just as a massive fireball erupted from the bunker’s corridor, licking at their backs as the ground beneath them lurched violently. The shockwave from the massive explosion knocked both men to the ground. They each looked up just in time to see the mountaintop begin to crumble sending a cascade of rocks crashing down into the valley in which they lay.
Deckland grabbed Berenger by the coat and pulled him to his feet, ushering him quickly to the edge of the clearing, the duo dodging the rocks and boulders as best they could as they frantically scrambled to get away. The two men reached the edge of the cliffside, a steep drop awaiting them there.
Without hesitation, the Rangers jumped, just as the mountain they were on imploded.
Chapter 17
Dust hung heavily in the air as Deckland stirred. His face was pressed upon the hard ground as he coughed, his whole body aching from the leap. He pushed himself up on his elbows and turned, looking up at the mountain that had collapsed in on itself, its peak now more akin to that of a volcano. Some rocks were still tumbling down its sides, making dull noises as they hit the ground.
Deckland’s gaze drifted over a few feet to Berenger’s location. He heard his partner’s groaning as Berenger, too, was recovering from the tumultuous ordeal.
“Berenger,” Deckland said, his throat scratchy from the dust. “You alive?”
Berenger rolled over onto his back, wincing as he did so. “Can’t imagine being dead hurting this much, so yeah, I’m still kicking,” he drawled.
Deckland got to his feet, picking up his hat from the ground and using it to brush the dirt from his uniform. He gazed up at the sky, which had a plume of dust hanging in it from the mountaintop’s destruction. He scowled at the sight.
“They blew up a mountain,” he grumbled. “I can’t believe they blew up an entire mountain…”
“And all our evidence along with it,” Berenger added as he pushed himself against a large rock, one of his legs stretched out before him.
“Are you injured?” Deckland asked, noticing Berenger’s leg.
“I’ll be fine. Just give me a second…”
Berenger pulled his leg up toward him and then adjusted his knee with a sickening POP. Berenger grunted as Deckland winced.
“RNGsus,” Deckland muttered, his own knee hurting simply from his witnessing that.
“I wasn’t lying when I told you I had me a trick knee,” Berenger said.
“Maybe you should get a bionic one, then. You almost didn’t make it out of there in time.”
“Bionic knees are expensive and impractical,” Berenger replied as he fished a cigar out from the inside pocket of his longcoat. “Speaking of impractical, your waiting for me to catch up… that was doubly so, not to mention foolish as all hell.”
“Would you have preferred me to have left you behind?”
“You could have gotten yourself killed.”
“Well, I didn’t. And you’re welcome for dragging your slow hide along with me, by the way.”
Berenger lit up his cigar and took a long drag off it as he rested against the boulder and exhaled. The smoke appeared to relax him a bit. “What you did back there was stupid,” he muttered, “but that being said… I’m much obliged to you for having my back as you did.”
Deckland nodded in acknowledgement of Berenger’s thanks before looking back up at the mountain. “Think there’s anything we can salvage up there?” he asked.
“Doubtful,” replied Berenger. “Whoever built that lab obviously took precautions should it ever be discovered. My guess is every bit of the data on them fancy servers was wiped, and all the bodies were vaporized before the self-destruct even had time to engage. The only thing we’re likely to find up there now is rubble and scorched debris. Maybe if we had a forensics team comb through it for a month or so we could get lucky and find something worthwhile, but I doubt it would link back to Stygaard or whoever that son of a bova on the computer screen was.”
“Do you think that could have been this ‘Archeron’ that Pyle mentioned before he died?”
“It’s possible. When you baited him with the name, he didn’t confirm or deny it. Of course, Archeron doesn’t have to be a person. It could be a group, a project, a place… there’s no telling what Pyle
meant by it.”
“Regardless, whoever that was had a part to play in the deaths of those children we found.”
Berenger nodded. “Yep,” he said in agreement, “but I fear we’ve got no way of tracking him down.”
“Did you get a trajectory on that ultrawave signal the lab was broadcasting?”
“Our mysterious friend cut me off the moment he appeared. I wasn’t able to get a bead on anything,” Berenger lamented as he frowned.
“Well, we may not be able to track him down, but we can certainly track down Stygaard,” Deckland said as he turned and looked at the colony of Skinny Plains in the distance. “At the very least, now we know for certain he was involved in this.”
“Yep,” said Berenger with a sigh. “Shame we can’t prove it.”
Deckland turned to Berenger with a curious look. “What do you mean?” he asked. “We heard that figure say Stygaard was the only person to access that lab.”
“You heard it, and I heard it. That is true,” Berenger replied with a nod. “But I was not able to record any of it.”
“But surely there was something in the data you accessed that points in his direction?”
“Rook, my bionics allow me to do some mighty fine hacking when I need to, but that stuff in there? That was far more advanced than my rusty old implants could handle. That level of technology ain’t even high-end hacker quality. That was some next-level, government-grade squick. I ain’t never seen its like before.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I was able to see some of the data on that central computer, but I was not able to download any of it before I was kicked out by whoever that was paying us a visit,” Berenger said. “I fear we’ve got nothing.”
Deckland blinked at Berenger as though he couldn’t comprehend what he was hearing.
“Nothing?” he said. “You weren’t able to recover any of the data stored in that lab?”
“Afraid not.”
“So… we’ve got no proof? Nothing that establishes the kidnapping ring? Nothing that ties it to that lab? Nothing that links it to Stygaard?”
Lawmen- Rook and Berenger Page 19