Chimera Code (Jake Dillon Adventure Thriller Series)

by Andrew Towning

  Chapter 15

  Dillon stood in awe at the entrance of the huge chamber hewn from the rock. Metal racks full with an impressive array of weapons; positioned in neat rows down the length of the chamber, were a contrast to the rough harshness of the environment.

  Computer monitors flickered across the wall at the far end of the cavernous room. Ezra walked straight towards them, saying as he walked. “These monitors control a number of concealed antipersonnel weapons that are concealed throughout and around the entire perimeter of the olive groves and villa complex.” Ezra gestured at the wall.

  “Mines, missiles and machine guns?” Said Dillon softly. “Bloody hell, Ezra. You must have some mighty powerful government masters to have such remarkably unlimited resources?”

  “Let me take you through to the kit-room. As you will soon see, we also have all of the latest lightweight body-armour, so fit yourselves out with anything you want and then we’ll talk battle tactics.”

  “Ezra, fighting a battle is one thing. But with the weaponry you’ve got down here, you could start a full-scale fucking war, old son.” Dillon said, as he inspected a bullet-proof body vest.

  Once Dillon and Tatiana had chosen their combat kit, Ezra explained quickly as they walked through a network of tunnels, gesticulating passionately with his hands, his eyes wide and focused; they came to many turns in the underground passageways - sometimes they branched off in two or three directions. Ezra would take a tunnel

  - seemingly at random - his boots treading the dust as he led the couple through the correct sequence of the…

  “Maze?” asked Dillon.

  “It didn’t start out like that, but over the years it has become so. We have been busy boys down here under the rock.” He grinned a broad toothy grin.

  “So I see,” said Dillon, brushing his way through giant cobwebs.

  “Of course you want answers? You sounded surprised when I mentioned anti-personnel weapons. Courtesy of MI6 and the SAS, who smoothed the way with the weapons? You see, we act as guardians for this large cache of killing power. Why? I hear you ask. Well, when a special operations team need a little extra hardware, they call in and we respond by ensuring they get what they want. The reason for this is - personal protection of VIPs. The British Government owns a number of exploration drilling rigs at a variety of locations around this part of the world. Together with this, and they would deny it if asked, they also own the rights to many ocean sites with oil, mineral and precious metals beneath the waves throughout the Mediterranean and Aegean. But it doesn’t stop there, the British Government also owns millions of acres of forestland in Poland, Russia, and Finland, and thousands more miles of desert throughout Africa and in a variety of locations scattered across the Middle-East... secretly, and under the guise of corporate business concerns. The British Government also has major holdings in many major corporations around the globe, including; drilling and mining, computer hardware and software development, military computer research and development, banking, you name it... It’s beyond my comprehension, and it is financed entirely from billions of pounds siphoned out of the Treasury and away from the public domain.” He said with acidity. “They have a finger in every pie; if you can make money out of it, the British Government does. Gold, precious stones, oil, gas, construction, computers. Behind closed doors, they are one of the wealthiest organisations in the world, even though they tell a gullible general public that the country has an enormous monetary deficit. And this is probably best for everyone, but…”

  “And there is always a but,” said Dillon easily.

  “We talked about Professor Kirill last night: He is, was, the bright star of British computer supremacy. But now he has joined forces with a rather unsavoury character by the name of Ramus - together they plan to use Chimera to destroy economies and even whole continents.”

  “I knew that the Chimera Programme was rumoured to be incredibly powerful, but…”

  “But nothing. Tell him, Tatiana.”

  Tatiana, who had gone quite pale, said. “The Chimera Programme is the most powerful virus based programme in the world

  - without doubt. It is so advanced, that not even the most innovative anti-virus software can combat against it. Chimera is self-teaching, so it is infinitely adaptable and works at lightening speeds to change its appearance - and can even make itself invisible. But the biggest breakthrough is that it does not work to ordinary scripts. Kirill wrote the original script, and then discovered the breakthrough purely by accident. The clever part is that you tell Chimera what it has to achieve and then push send. That’s it - from that moment on Chimera is thinking for itself. But more than that, it can enter even the most heavily guarded military computer mainframe, take the information it was asked to obtain and leave - without a trace of it ever having been there.”

  “Without a trace.”

  “To within a certain percentage rate. It’s not perfect - but it has already started to prove itself as brilliantly astounding.”

  They came to the end of a corridor, blanked by an alloy door. Ezra placed his hand, palm down, on the biometric reader panel - the door slid back to reveal a large chamber, full of thirty or more men and woman all working at computer monitors, The bunker was hewn from the rock, the walls rough and course, grained and grooved by the tools used to create this underground network.

  “Impressive isn’t it! We can monitor everything from down here, and we only have about fifteen minutes.” Ezra stood gazing at one of the monitors for a moment, and then said, “Arm the perimeter machine guns and also the stingers.”

  “Are they on the island yet?” Dillon’s eyes were bright, alert.

  “Soon, but they have split into three attack groups.”

  Dillon frowned. “And?”

  Ezra rubbed his chin stubble. “The good news is that they have come by sea, as we expected. Had they come by air, they know that we would have shot them out of the sky with our stinger missiles, long before they were anywhere close to the island.”

  “And the bad news?”

  “There are a few more of them than we first thought.”

  “How many?”

  “At least fifty. And they are armed with the latest laser guided hardware.”

  “What sort?”

  “Tank busters...”

  “What the hell are we going to use against that sort of hardware?”

  “Faith, Dillon. Faith. And of course an armoury full of state of the art weapons.”

  Dillon met Tatiana’s gaze, both simultaneously picked-up the underlying nervousness in Ezra’s booming voice. Dillon pacedaround the room, his senses starting to stir in the dark recesses of his mind - adrenalin beginning to rise - anticipation of what was to come, turning to excitement...

  * * * Sunlight rolled over the ocean, white tendrils, dancing over the blue water. It glanced over the cliff top and through the olive groves. Occasionally a dog barked in the distance.

  The men and women of Ezra’s secret facility waited. They waited for the Assassins.

  Dillon stood to one side of the doorway, a Heckler and Koch

  MP5 machine carbine in his hands. He held the lethal weapon loosely by his side, for it had been a long time since he had used such a heavy piece of hardware, always relying on his loyal Glock 9mm automatic. Dillon didn’t like machine guns; they were noisy, bone shaking instruments of mass destruction, to his mind.

  Ezra came out with a jug of iced tea, handing Tatiana a glass full of the refreshing amber liquid, and then Dillon the same. They drank, Tatiana keeping her eyes fixed on the small portable monitor screen that she held in the palm of her hand. It showed the cliff top beyond the olive groves, with the sparkling blue vista of the ocean beyond, and at a touch, the image on the screen changed to those relayed by one of the concealed perimeter cameras.

  Tatiana sported standard issue desert combats and boots. She held her sub-machine gun like a baby cradled in her arms; Dillon’s gaze swept the horizon for any unwelcome movement,
and after a few moments they both went back inside the secret facility. As they walked into the monitor room, Dillon was immediately aware of the tense air of anticipation and the nervous realisation that their secure and secret world was about to be smashed.

  “Will they come, Dillon?” Franky said softly. Dillon was sitting on the edge of one of the workstations, watching the monitor intently. The scene was surreal. An ordinary looking white-washed villa, olive groves, an abundance of colourful flora, their hues radiant in the sunshine... and in contrast, an array of hi-tech laser guided weaponry, all concealed and controlled remotely from this underground facility.

  “From what I saw in Scotland, they’ll come,” he said, passing her a cigarette.

  She looked at the open packet. “I’m supposed to be giving up. But these are stressful times.” She took a cigarette, and Dillon offered her a light from his slender gold lighter.

  Tatiana came over and sat down beside Dillon. “How’s your shoulder?”

  “Okay, thanks.” She smiled, but the smile was merely masking her nervousness. “It still feels like someone is sticking a red hot poker into my shoulder every time I move my arm. How are you feeling?”

  “Like I’ve been hit by a train. But no problem, Ezra gave me some more painkillers. I just hope they kick in soon, as I have a feeling that I’m going to need a clear head and my wits about me soon enough...”

  They waited in virtual silence.

  “Do you think we can fight them from down here with the remote weapons?”

  “Honestly. No chance. These Assassins are the elite, they will almost certainly be conversant with the majority of weapons that we have here - and how to disarm them.”

  Dillon scratched an imaginary itch on his chin while wishing the headache, that had once again made its presence known, gone. “I hate these blasted waiting games; I work much better on my own.”

  “We know,” said Tatiana, glancing round. “But unfortunately we have little choice.”

  Dillon stood up and paced around the room, hands firmly placed behind his back. “Whatever happened to the world I knew?”

  “Global computer terrorism. That’s what happened.” Franky said.

  Spiros appeared from one of the passageways off of the main chamber; he carried a small circular optical disc in one hand, and was smiling broadly. He gave the disc to Ezra.

  “There it is, Boss.”

  “Is this all the data?”

  “Everything - it would surely make Kirill weep.”

  Dillon’s head snapped around at the mention of his name, his eyes sharp. “Kirill? I shot that bastard in Cornwall - he should be dead.”

  “He most certainly is not dead, Dillon. Ferran & Cardini has been keeping an eye on professor Kirill for many months, on behalf of HM Government. He is believed to be inextricably involved with the systematic destruction of Scorpion, and he’s not working alone. As you know, his facility is located in one of the most inhospitable areas of the Scottish Highlands - but as always with Kirill, he has shrouded himself in such a cloak of secrecy, that we are having trouble establishing how he is able to implement his game plan and still evade every attempt to monitor him. He is very good - he is extremely wellconnected at the highest level, this bastard is almost untouchable. And since the Scorpion network and mainframe has been completely destroyed, it is pretty hard to check out certain facts now. To be honest with you - this situation can only get worse from here on in.”

  Dillon made a kind of snorting noise, and then said. “Kirill,” he spoke softly. “He is definitely a major player in everything that’s taking place; I can feel it in my gut. He was ready to kill me back in Cornwall. Which means that he has obviously become more adventurous - more reckless...”

  “Your report came in to Vince Sharp, who went straight to the partners with it. But it was too late getting to Scorpion HQ.” Said Tatiana.

  Dillon nodded; his headache was now making him feel particularly tetchy.

  Tatiana was sitting in front of one of the monitors.

  “So what do you know about Kirill’s facility in Scotland?” There was a glint in Dillon’s eye; Kirill brought back the bad memory of the assignment in the South of England, and now he knew that one day - one day soon, he would meet the man again. Dillon would have a little chat with him, and then he would kill him...

  Ezra frowned. “Every step of the Chimera Programme development process, has taken place at Kirill’s facility in Scotland. Some of the basic scripts were leaked recently over the Net and there have been some pretty pissed-off people... especially since we also have the blue-prints containing a vital missing script for this extremely dangerous programme.” Ezra laughed without humour.

  “After we’ve shown these Assassin fellows some good old fashioned Greek hospitality, we could do with popping over to say hello to professor Kirill and his team of hackers. I’m sure they would be very interesting to talk to. But considering what they’re planning for our world economy, that place must be locked down so tight that even a mouse wouldn’t get inside.”

  Tatiana spun round in her seat, “Ezra, you’d better look at this.”

  Ezra went to Tatiana’s monitor, resting his large hands on the back of her swivel chair and stared at the flickering screen in front of her. “Shit,” hissed Ezra, “something is wrong - everything looks normal.” His gaze flicked from Tatiana’s monitor to the screen next to her - but there was nothing, nothing visible, no black clad Assassins clambering up from the cliff top or through the olive groves. Nothing.

  “So what’s happening, Ezra?” Tatiana’s voice was a little shaky.

  “Normal is not good.” Ezra pulled a small black device from his pocket, which had a series of green and blue LED lights flashing. He looked up at Dillon. “This device has only one function, to let me know when there is a security perimeter breach... Those bastards have out-smarted our early-warning surveillance systems... But how did they do it? No matter now, we don’t have the luxury of time to deliberate this problem. If the worst happens, we have one last surprise up our sleeve, and you don’t want to be within a mile of this place when it goes off.”

  “What is it, Ezra?” Tatiana asked.

  “An Electro Magnetic Impulse weapon. It’s located directly under this chamber. When the device is detonated it will destroy everything organic within the immediate area and all electronic equipment within a one mile radius will be deactivated and the hardrives erased. However, once the device is armed this facility will go into a state of hibernation, every electrical appliance and all of the computer hardware that is here, is fitted with special shielding against the impulse blast.

  “How do we leave?” Dillon said softly.

  Ezra pointed to an alloy panel at the far end of the chamber. “If the situation looks hopeless, I want everyone to try and make their way back to this chamber.” His expression was sombre, his voice low.

  “It will be the only way of getting away in time, and the countdown is set for 60 seconds,” he walked over to the panel, “behind this panel is another tunnel that leads straight down to the base of the cliffs. There are purpose built sleighs on the other side, which run on a mono-rail all the way to the bottom. The hidden exit will automatically open once I’ve pushed the countdown button.” He looked around the room for a brief moment, and then said. ‘’It’s time to meet our enemy. May luck be with us all.”

  He turned and went out through the tunnel, followed by Dillon, Tatiana, Franky and Spiros and a number of security guards; who were all wearing body armour and headsets within their helmets. The heavy metal door slid closed behind them. Moving to the mouth of the tunnel they remained deep within the shadows, Dillon pulled free his Glock and brought up the Heckler...

  His mouth was suddenly dry, he felt the adrenalin pumping through his heart, and a slow burning sensation deep within his subconscious.

  Bullets screamed, a short burst smashing into the rock an inch above Dillon’s head, showering him in dust and debris. There was the
whack and splat of a bullet entering flesh and a security guard, who was standing at the front of the line, smoking and resting his gun across his arm, had his head obliterated in a violent spray of blood, brains and bone. The entire side of his head and face disintegrated and now covered the rough-hewn wall of the tunnel entrance. His legs buckled from under him and he dropped, twitching and blood trailing crimson to the ground.

  “Stay down!” Screamed Dillon as rapid automatic gunfire erupted all around - and he suddenly knew, remembered how the Assassin’s had avoided his own sophisticated security system and early warning mechanisms back at his home in Scotland... and the bastards had done exactly the same here - they’d bypassed the security network and were now - inside the facility perimeter.

  Why use such brash and head-on tactics, when stealth and cunning could have so easily carried their game off more smoothly.

  And Dillon knew that this noisy full frontal attack was a diversion. To draw their attention. After all, who wouldn’thear the distinctive battle cry of a Heckler & Koch MP5 SMG firing at full throttle?

  Dillon hit the dirt hard, pulling Tatiana down with him.

  On the opposite side of the tunnel, Ezra crouched low, keeping his back tight to the rough wall as machine-gun bursts roared, screamed and echoed into the tunnel from outside. Dillon glanced left and was momentarily stunned by what he saw. A squad of ten or so Assassins were pinning them down in the tunnel entrance while another two were advancing towards them carrying, what appeared to be missile launchers. They moved with amazing agility and speed, their movements effortless as they sped across the olive grove - machine guns continued to thunder.

  “Aim for their heads, it’s the only area without armour!” Bellowed Ezra, and, keeping low, crept his way nearer to the mouth of the tunnel. Seeing Ezra, Dillon launched himself forward and as he landed, rolled and fired his Heckler on fully automatic to give covering fire. An Assassin was picked up and slammed backwards off of its feet and onto the arid earth with a series of holes where its face had once been. Dillon looked pensive as he took in the scene, no more than a few seconds had passed, before he was firing another short burst at four Assassins to his left, he rolled and, another rapid burst to his right, and three more went down into the dust - their heads almost severed from the vicious fusillade of bullets.