Promethean Shadows

by Patrick Jean-Jacques

  The old laundry had been disused for such a long time, that bravo team were able to execute their part of the operation with relative ease. Inside, there was a dilapidated old washing machine with a gaudy tarpaulin draped over it and mould festering around the corners of the room. An old mop bucket sat alone in one corner next to an extremely large storage area. Maya casually threw her knapsack and jacket down beside it.

  With minimal effort, the group removed a few ceiling panels and climbed-up into the crawl space above. Maya reluctantly lead the way, when the burly male Promethean, who wasn’t particularly loquacious, prompted her menacingly with his gun.

  They followed some rusty old pipes, which were running along the wall until they reached the spent fuel pool. Maya and the other female Promethean placed their explosives and timers along the pipes, while the man watched. Seizing an opportune moment, Maya suddenly moved quickly around a blind corner, which caught both Prometheans off guard.

  The female Promethean was just as quick as Maya but had far deadlier skillsets. She had six years of military experience, four of which were in the field. Instantly, she pulled out her handgun from behind her back and chased after Maya.

  “Wait, wait!” shouted the male Promethean, before running after her.

  In her heightened state of excitement, the female Promethean ignored her training about the rules of engagement. As she came running around the corner, Maya drove a kick across both her knees.

  As the female promethean fell, she dropped her gun. In a split second, there was a scramble to see who’d reach it first. Ultimately, the female Promethean found herself staring down the barrel of her own gun.

  The male Promethean stopped cautiously short of the corner and hesitated. Then suddenly, he heard the ominous sound of gunfire and saw the muzzle flash. A red cloud sprayed chillingly across the air, as if flicked from a paintbrush. As the male Promethean reached the corner of the corridor, he emptied his gun down but it was in vain, Maya was gone.

  Stooping over his fallen colleague, the male Promethean looked her up and down. A trace of emotion fell across his sad, softened face. After several operations together, they’d forged themselves into a tight unit. Gently, he closed her eyelids and sighed mournfully. Then he looked down the corridor with murderous intent and his eyes filled vengeance.

  Very slowly, the man got to his feet. He ejected the used magazine, slammed in a full clip and cocked his gun. The male Promethean didn’t bother running because he knew exactly where Maya was heading.

  ✽✽✽

  Alpha team’s task was slightly more complex than Bravo teams, laying and setting the explosives was the easy part. There was a handful of contractors working around the spent nuclear fuel pools that day. Their duties required them to monitor the levels and rate of decay heat of fissions products, namely radioactivity waste.

  The contractors comprised of two senior nuclear physicists, an environmental biologist, two engineers and a couple of nuclear technicians. They worked around each other with a seamless synergy, communicating in their high-level scientific parlance.

  Alpha team met little resistance in subduing the contractors. They were all married professionals with families and no one wanted to play hero. Although there was little to no resistance, it was necessary for the workers to be tied-up and gagged.

  Will looked at the hostages who were now sitting around the floor and knew the Prometheans wouldn’t let any of them live. After examining the scared faces, Will saw that at least two of the contractors, a technicians and an engineer wasn’t much older than he was.

  “Jesus!” exclaimed Will. “They’re just kids!”

  “Stop looking at them,” ordered the female Promethean gruffly. “They’re none of your concern.”

  Will saw the fear written across their faces and wondered how he could help them. The female Promethean slammed the door shut and locked it securely. The contractors looked at each other nervously and the youngest was trembling with fear. The two senior physicists looked at each other slowly then looked up at the shelves fearfully.

  The Prometheans had locked the contractors away in what used to be a sterile laboratory but unfortunately, had become a storage room. Hundreds of clear, plastic bottles now sat on the shelves and they all contained a transparent fluid.

  Will’s sleight-of-hand had gone unnoticed, when he’d secretly placed a small Swiss army blade into the hands of one of the contractors. As far he was concerned, every one of those innocent contractors was going to walk away, preferably unharmed.

  When the final explosive was set and activated, the male Promethean sent a signal to Cameron to indicate their readiness. He also tried to communicate with his other colleagues from bravo team but was unsuccessful. The male Promethean figured they were preoccupied with setting their own devices.

  Will glanced across the room and saw someone hiding in the shadows. He casually walked over to an explosive and pretended to check the timer. Will reduced the timer to zero minutes and was about to deactivate it, when he felt the cold metal pressed against his back.

  He turned around to see the female Promethean had a gun pointed at him. She started applying pressure against the trigger, when a sound like a firecracker echoed fiercely across the room. The female Promethean crumpled to the floor in a heap, dead.

  The male Promethean spun around and automatically fired in Maya’s direction, which caused her to take cover. Instinctively, Will grabbed a metal bar and swung it hard twice. The first blow disarmed the man, breaking his wrist. The second blow was more fatal and fractured the Promethean’s skull.

  As the Promethean’s glasses fell to the floor, Will quickly stamped on them, in order to destroy the hidden camera. Maya embraced him and they shared a kiss, as though they hadn’t seen each other for ages.

  “We’re not out of this yet,” she urged. “There’s another one behind me, big guy and I don’t think he’s very happy.”

  “Now whadda we do?” asked Will.

  “Well, we should assume Cameron knows we’ve betrayed him,” said Maya. “He’ll certainly try to detonate the explosives remotely but I’m hoping he doesn’t know I’ve jammed the signal from his console.”

  “How?” asked Will, impressed.

  “I placed a special black box inside his SUV,” said Maya proudly. “It’s not military spec but it’ll stop him from detonating the explosives.”

  “Where’d you…?” started Will.

  “I stole it from dad,” interrupted Maya casually. “When I knew what Cameron was planning, I thought it’d come in handy one day.”

  “Good girl!” said Will. He kissed Maya again. “You know I love you right?”

  “I love you too but we’ve still got work to do,” she said perceptively. “You deactivate the explosives, I’ll cover you,” ordered Maya.

  Without knowing, Maya and Will had divulged their full intentions to Cameron, who was now steaming with rage inside the SUV. The earpiece on the dead female was still transmitting and consequently, Cameron had heard everything. He angrily demanded Nathan should ‘take care of them’ and started to conduct a frenzied search of his vehicle.

  Working quickly, Maya and Will had cleared most of the explosives. They looked at each other and smiled when they’d located the last one. Will immediately got to work.

  “What are we gonna do when this is all over?” asked Will.

  “I don’t know,” replied Maya. “But it’d be best to stay off the grid for a bit.”

  “What about Mexico?” Will asked, as he carefully handled the explosives.

  “Mexico?” Maya repeated. “Hmm, Cancun, sombreros and tequila?” she said in her worst Mexican accent. “…Perhaps! What about Hawaii?”

  “Hawaii?” replied Will. “Hmm, white sandy beaches, surfing and hula dancers,” he smiled. “…Perhaps!”

  “Very romantic,” growled the cold and angry voice. “You forgot Five-0!”

  Maya and Will stopped what they were doing and turned around. They saw the b
urly male Promethean who’d been pursuing Maya, his gun was aimed them. When they saw his eyes were bereft of emotion, they understood his intentions.

  “You and I have a score to settle,” the enraged Promethean said, pointing at Maya. “I don’t care whose daughter you are,” he snarled.

  As he fired his gun, Maya shoved Will aside and fired her own gun twice. Simultaneously, three shots rang out across the corridor. The bullet from the male Promethean’s gun grazed Maya’s shoulder, which in turn caused her first shot to miss.

  She was already falling when she’d fired her second shot, which strayed wildly away from her target. Maya’s gun fell from her hands, as she hit the ground hard and slid across the floor.

  The male Promethean sneered menacingly and walked over to her. Maya had a secondary weapon strapped to her lower leg, which she grabbed. As she raised her arm, the male Promethean immediately kicked the gun out of her hand and broke two of her fingers. He raised his gun and started pulling against the trigger.

  “Say goodbye, bitch!” said the male Promethean.

  As he pressed the trigger, multiple shots thundered from another direction. Bullets from the gun Will was holding thundered into the male Promethean. He stood still for a seconds in shock, then examined the bloody mess on his stomach. Then, he looked at Will incredulously before falling dead.

  “Goodbye, BITCH!” quipped Will angrily. “We need to stop the bleeding and put a tourniquet around that,” he added, as he rushed over to Maya.

  He helped Maya to her feet. Without thinking, he ripped material from his own tee shirt, which was protruding from his torn protective suit. After applying pressure against the wound, he made a makeshift tourniquet. He used some gaffer tape, which was lying around to secure Maya’s arm and broken fingers.

  “Will, your suit!” exclaimed Maya.

  “I’ll be fine as long as there isn’t a radiation leak,” said Will, trying to allay Maya’s fears.”

  They headed towards the floor above the old laundry. On their way out, Will freed the contractors and automatically activated the evacuation sirens. Chapelsfield-A was now filled with the blaring acoustics of the alarms and flashing red warning lights everywhere.

  As they fled, the young contractors thanked Maya and Will, and warned them about the storage room. Essentially, ‘Chapelsfield-A was already a disaster waiting to happen,’ one of the contractors had told them. The hundreds of plastic bottles on the shelves had contained nuclear waste, plutonium to be more precise and were slowly decomposing.

  Worse still, a stray bullet from Maya’s gun, had actually passed through the glass panel on the door and penetrated one of the plastic containers. “Which meant the prolonged contact with the air would soon make it combustible within minutes,” one of the senior Physicists had observed gravely.

  ✽✽✽

  Cameron had stripped the entire lining out the SUV. He’d pulled all the door panels out and ripped the upholstery with his large hunting knife. He’d gotten himself so worked-up that he lifted the spare tyre out, slashed it mercilessly and rolled it into a ditch. After a while, he allowed his wrath to subside and took a more cerebral approach.

  He opened the bonnet of the vehicle and looked around. He checked the engine, carburettor, radiator, everywhere but still couldn’t see anything. Cameron paused shortly, then looked at everything a second time.

  Suddenly, he spotted Maya’s little black box magnetically attached to the side of the radiator. He scrutinized it for a little while then threw it to the ground disgusted and crushed it underneath his boot.

  Maya and Will had reached the floor below the spent fuel pools. Will was working even quickly now, as though it was second nature. Despite feeling weakened, Maya was able to provide cover for him. Eventually, they reached the last device but found their progress blocked.

  “That’s far enough!” said the voice, over the siren. Nathan Walker had been waiting patiently. He’d heard the gunfire and waited to see who’d emerge afterwards. He confiscated their weapons, “You look terrible!” he said to his daughter.

  “Th-Thanks, dad!” replied Maya. “You really know what to say to a gal,” she jibed.

  “You’ve been very busy and incredibly stupid,” said Nathan, irritated.

  “Yes! Well, that’s what we were going for,” said Will. “Stupid!”

  “What did you hope to achieve?” asked Nathan, ignoring Will. “You were never going to stop this thing.”

  “I found it Nathan!” said Cameron in his earpiece. “Your clever little daughter jammed the signal with one of your little boxes,” he added disdainfully. “Leave them there, we don’t need the timers.”

  Nathan Walker tapped his earpiece to send a confirmatory signal to Cameron. He then handcuffed Will to the pipes next to the last of the explosive.

  “Right then, you’re coming with me,” he said to Maya. “…and you,” pointing to Will. “You get to stay!” Nathan looked at his daughter, “Despite your betrayal, you are my daughter. I’m not leaving you here like this.”

  “You mean like this!” said Maya coldly.

  Nathan Walker doubled-over and grabbed his stomach. He had a horrified look on his face, as Maya pulled the bloodied blade away. He fell to the floor and died. Horrified, Maya looked at her bloodied hand and started crying disconsolately as she threw the blade away. After a while and some reassuring words from Will, Maya retrieved the keys from her father’s pocket and unlocked Will’s handcuffs.

  The first thing Will did was to hug Maya and consoled her some more. However, they still had explosives to deactivate and were both still at risk. Radioactive material had now been leaking onto the floor profusely from the plastic bottles into the old storage area.

  Will’s radiation suit was practically shredded and finding a way out of Chapelsfield was their sole priority. They headed for an emergency stairwell and descended two floors down, which took them to the nearest fire exits.

  As they headed down the stairwell, a colossal explosion rumbled through the floor. Maya and Will held on to the railings as the building trembled. The concrete walls, which had slowly decayed over time fragmented into smaller pieces of rock. The steel casing, which had also decomposed, cracked into smaller pieces and fell into the pool.

  “He’s found it Will,” yelled Maya. “Cameron’s found the box. How are we going to get out?” she said fearfully.

  “This way!” commanded Will.

  Another explosion, roared out from the floors below them. A plume of fire and black smoke flared up the stairwell. Thankfully, Will reacted quickly and pulled Maya into a recess while the heat and ash rushed past them. Maya was struggling from her wounds and the intense heat made it harder to breath.

  Maya was less concerned about herself and more worried about Will. Soon, they reached the old laundry and found their exit. The combination of heat and radiation was increasing to potentially fatal levels and Will’s protective suit was all but useless.

  Will smiled as when they reached the fire exit doors. He pushed the bar but nothing happened. He tried again and again, desperately straining every muscle but still, nothing. Will even took a run-up and crashed against it but it was all in vain.

  “Stop!” protested Maya tiredly. “Look!”

  She pointed to the gap under the fire exit doors. They both saw the shadow belonging to one of the vans. It was now blocking their only means of escape from Chapelsfield-A, which meant they were trapped.

  “What are we gonna do?” gasped Will, exhausted from his efforts.

  Maya looked around the room and saw the only solution that seemed reasonable. She clambered to her feet unsteadily and walked over to where she’d left her jacket and knapsack.

  “What are you going to do with that?” asked Will.

  Maya didn’t reply and wanted to conserve as much energy as she could. The sirens were still clanging deafeningly around the Chapelsfield facility. Radioactive material was still spreading through the air more abundantly and time was running out. M
aya was now holding a bundle of explosives with a timer attached and already fiddling about with it.

  “You see those doors behind you?” asked Maya calmly.

  “Sure, it’s a cold storage,” replied Will. “But, it’s not even cold.”

  “That’s good because we won’t freeze,” said Maya. “Get inside,” she instructed. “Quick!”

  “How’s that going to help?” asked Will, hesitantly.

  “Because it’s lined with lead,” replied Maya, as if Will should’ve known. “It’ll shield us from the radiation when this thing blows,” she insisted. “Now, get in quickly!”

  “Good!” said Will excitedly. “That’s a good plan.”

  After Maya placed the explosives at the base of the fire doors, Will delicately helped her up. She set the timer for two minutes and they both moved quickly towards the cold storage box.

  Will opened the large doors and looked around. As soon as he stepped inside, he suddenly felt himself lurch forward and crashed to the floor. Before he could say anything, a metal pipe came crashing down against the back of his head, which disorientated him further.

  “I’m sorry but my plan was only ever for one,” said Maya regrettably. “And that’s you!”

  “Maya, Maya…” protested a groggy Will.

  Will’s cries drowned out when Maya closed the storage doors shut and left him engulfed in darkness. She wedged the metal pipe between the handle and the storage door then walked over to the explosives. Maya fiddled with the timer and set it for sixty seconds.

  Maya knew if she’d divulged her plan, Will wouldn’t have gone with it. Despite the wailing of the sirens, she could hear him protesting and shouting. He’d been banging his fists so hard against the cold storage doors they’d become swollen and bruised.

  Eventually, he gave up and placed his forehead against the door. Maya allowed the cacophony of noise to flow around her and tried to feel Will’s presence inside the cold storage box.