The Siberian Incident 2

by Andrew Gille

"Try not to kill anyone, we're here to get information, not slaughter people. These are Colin's employees, not soldiers," Scott said as they scanned down a hallway. Maddock nodded to him. Hearing no footsteps, they proceeded.

  "It's the room on your left, Scott, if you can point your gun down the hallway. Yeah, they've stopped in the entryway on the opposite side, you have time to get to that room," Agent Magdalena remarked as they approached a door.

  Scott turned the doorknob as Maddock watched for any approaching sentries.

  "Locked," Scott said.

  Maddock knelt down to pick the lock, a skill he had from many missions where he had been called upon to get into locked doors when shooting the door open was not an option. Maddock placed a small wrench in the bottom of the doorknob and raked the cylinders with another. Working the two wrenches, he felt the door unlock after only a few seconds. Turning the knob, he and Scott slipped silently into the room and closed the door softly.

  "I'm getting some interference, Scott, anything happening there?" Magdalena said.

  "Nothing I see, we've made entry into the computer lab," Scott answered.

  "Ok, I have no readings on the two guards at that facility. I have no visual on them with the satellite, and all of my other readings have just stopped uploading."

  "Tell me if there is something I can do to get it back for you," Scott said.

  "I can't…"

  Agent Magdalena's voice suddenly turned into a garbled mess of static and unintelligible, muffled noise.

  "Guess she can't help us anymore," Maddock said.

  "They might have turned on a jammer," Scott surmised, "That was why I wanted radio silence until we got here. I thought we'd be out before they heard us."

  "It's fine, I've been in and out of plenty of more heavily guarded places than this, like Mohmar Gaddafi's prison, and I didn't have an Agent Magdalena giving me directions."

  "Good, okay, I need to breach this computer, I have a password that I hope works," Scott said as the light of a flat paneled monitor brightened the room and lit his face as he typed on a keyboard.

  Maddock looked back and stood watch at the door.

  "Okay, I'm in, let's see what's going on here."

  The Cyrillic words "Вечно человек проект" appeared on the screen.

  "What do you see?" Maddock asked as Scott appeared to be reading from a screen.

  Scott scanned through the pages, silent as Maddock watched Scott's eyes move quickly across the words on the screen. Maddock could see that the page was full of Cyrillic characters. Scott's ability to read and comprehend the language so quickly impressed him.

  "Ok, so this is interesting, there are two breeds of yetis," Scott said, raising his eyebrows at the discovery.

  "Two?" Maddock questioned, keeping his gun and eyes trained on the door.

  "Yes, one is a native species, it's been known to the native Siberian population fore eons. It's part of their legends, its a called," Scott looked at the word he was trying to translate and came up with the closest alternative he could think of, "They are called the 'Snow Yeti' in those legends and stories. They are a helpful but elusive and shy species. Seeing them signifies good luck, and there are several stories of them helping humans in danger."

  "Ok, what are the other breed?"

  "The other breed isn't a native species. The Russians found a man in the early 2000s near a place 50 miles from here. He was encased in ice, he was a prehistoric hominid, much like the Snow Yeti. He and a saber-toothed tiger, a smilodon, had apparently killed each other and then had become frozen together. They kept the man in cryostasis and used the smilodon to recreate the species using their Siberian tigers and genetic engineering. Guess which company they contracted with to do the genetic engineering?"

  "Vechnozelenaya Technology?" Maddock asked.

  "Exactly, a company with ties to Colin Crossfield," Scott answered, "He was here in the early 2000s looking for business opportunities. He had acquired an American company named Quasar Laboratories, which specialized in genetic engineering. He also obtained a vegetable company that he used as an excuse to come to Russia. Goleta Produce, I think you remember them from his trial in 2014. He was really looking to sell it, but he found an opportunity here."

  "Okay, so they brought a smilodon back from the Pleistocene era? Like Jurassic Park or what?"

  "Not exactly, they used the DNA from the frozen smilodon but then spliced that into Siberian tigers. The tigers share some DNA with modern tigers, but they look pretty much like the frozen cat," Scott said, scanning more notes from the files.

  "So, what does this have to do with the yetis?"

  "The whole reason there is an opportunity here in Siberia in the first place is that the Russians have learned about the yetis. The Russian government captured some of them during the Soviet era. They have found that the yetis are four times as strong as human beings. They heal faster. They have this armor-like skin and bulletproof fur that grows in cords and stops the energy of bullets before it even gets to the almost impervious skin they have. Also, they live almost 300 years and although they are fully grown in three years, they live 100 times that long. The scientists are working on making them follow orders and they have several breakthroughs. They actually succeed in getting them to do what they say by using a reward system, there's only one problem," Scott read.

  "What is that?"

  "They will not harm human beings. They can get them to move to where they want them, they can get them to retrieve things, they can even get them to destroy things like vehicles, but they will not harm human beings. Even if humans try to kill them or succeed in killing one of them. Their instinct is to retreat rather than hurt people. The Russian scientists say that Homo sapiens are like cute puppies to these Snow Yetis. These things love people, the researchers say they believe that the yetis think we are 'milly' or 'cute' in English. Even if we hurt them, they still retain a fondness for us. Wow," Scott paused.

  "What?" Maddock asked.

  "That makes sense, my grandpa said they'd shot at and hit the yetis, but the yetis still helped them. We're like puppies to them, you get bit by a puppy, only a psychopath strikes back. You might correct the puppy, but you come back to him, you hold him, you pet him again. They just wouldn't hurt people or…wow," Scott paused again and was silent while he read for a few seconds, "They also would not hurt each other. They sent these things off into the hills, created two tribes, the tribes created distinct religions, customs and had different primitive languages. Then they deprived one of food and supplies. Guess what happened?" Scott paraphrased a paragraph he was reading.

  "A war, they then grew violent?" Maddock assumed.

  "Wrong, they helped each other, the researchers could not get them to fight. The tribe with less helped the other tribe. They banded together and formed one big tribe and integrated their customs and religions."

  "Wow, good for them, like Shang-Gri-La," Maddock scoffed.

  "Seems a little hokey to us jaded humans, yeah. I don't think the researchers were impressed either."

  "Okay, so explain what happened to Sasha, those loving creatures tore him apart," Maddock said.

  "I'm getting to that. About this time, your dear nephew's company Vechnozelenaya Technology is at a standstill. They are about to lose their funding from the Russian government because they can't make these yetis fight each other. Colin wants to see the company succeed because he's deep into biohacking at this time. He's got a team of scientists trying to develop ways to graft the strength, healing and longevity of these creatures into humans. Specifically into himself. He's trying to develop anti-aging techniques. He wants immortality. So, he dumps a bunch of capital secretly into the company. He does the majority of this money laundering during a visit here in 2009. The trip he brought my grandpa on. He funnels it through commodities brokers."

  "Because he also owns a vegetable company," Maddock guessed.

  "Exactly. And through a Russian Oil Oligarch also involved in commoditie
s named…"

  "Dimitry Strovenyevich?" Maddock completed Scott's sentence.

  "So they use what they learned about creating the smilodons and grafted DNA from the primitive hominid they found into the Snow Yetis. They actually become weaker and less healthy but there is a slight improvement in aggression. They still won't hurt humans, though. Do you know what they had to do to get them to kill human beings and become the ferocious, violent species they created?"

  "No idea, what?"

  "They used human DNA and spliced it in, once they did that, the species would fight, kill, and slaughter each other and human beings. They became so violent they had to invent artificial means of controlling them, like high voltage shock collars because they would use team tactics and kill their handlers. They called the species they'd created the Magadan Yeti for the city where Vechnozelenaya Technology's lab, which created them, was located."

  "The Magadan Yeti sounds a lot more sinister than Snow Yeti," Maddock said.

  "And they are. The Magadan will slaughter you just as well as look at you. They had to shoot two of them in the mouth with a 50 cal, because, they are nearly bulletproof everywhere else and they tore a researcher's head clean off. When they use weapons, they equal the Snow Yetis, it is only in hand to hand combat that the Snow Yetis excel. Luckily these things cannot use guns, or the Russians never taught them to. They do use and make primitive weapons. When armed, because of their superior intelligence, they are able to defeat the Snow Yetis. The Magadan might be weaker than the Snow Yetis, but they were still much stronger than a human being, three times the strength of a chimp."

  "And a chimp will rip your face off," Maddock said.

  "Yeah, they are strong. So they unleash these violent yetis on the Snow Yetis and guess what happens."

  "You like to make me guess a lot. I don't know? They murder all of the nice yetis?"

  "No, for some reason when confronted with the warring yetis, the nice ones now defend themselves. They assume it is all of the research and modification of behavior they've done over the years trying to make these guys more violent. Now, they still won't attack human beings, but they use their strength and power to tear the violent yetis apart if they threaten them or human beings. The Magadan craft better weapons and are better at using them, but the Snow Yetis hold their ground, and they begin avoiding each other."

  "Interesting."

  "Right, so the Russian's super soldier project is stalled. The Magadan are too violent and uncontrollable. It looks like he's running out of time here. There's a dispatch from a Russian General asking some very pointed questions about this whole project."

  "Alright, well, I think we got what we came for, anything else interesting in there?"

  "Yeah, we're on a massive preserve the size of Montana owned by Vechnozelenaya Technology, they study the yetis and their battles here. They have about half a dozen of each tribe, and they are looking at ways to help the second iteration of the yetis beat the first."

  "They want to help the bad yetis?" Maddock said, raising his eyebrow.

  "The Magadan, yes," Scott replied, "Okay, I have this downloaded…"

  Scott was cutoff by Maddock touching his fingers to his lips, making a sign for him to be quiet. Maddock approached the door, then stood to its side. Two men could be heard outside, walking past. Maddock cracked the door and motioned for Scott to come to the door.

  They walked down a hall in the opposite direction of the two sentries and cautiously opened the door at the end of the hallway. They walked into a well-lit room, which seemed to have an egress. Inside they saw six glass cages. In two of the cages were saber-toothed tigers. Two more held sad-looking yetis who appeared to be asleep. A large, heavy rolling cart made of steel contained various tools and syringes.

  Another two cages farther on the wall contained yetis who sprang up as Colin and Scott walked in. These two yetis pounded on their cages and screamed as the two men entered.

  The sleeping yetis awoke, and they too screamed, but their screams were directed at the yetis now pounding their cages. Eventually, the tigers began roaring at full volume, creating a scene of violent noise that could be heard in every corner of the building.

  Scott and Maddock ran in the opposite direction. They opened another door, still hearing the screams of the adjacent animals they were plunged into complete darkness in the room they'd happened upon.

  Donning their NVGs once again, they realized they were in a garage. They saw snowmobiles and military trucks equipped with tank treads. Four snowmobiles with Tajga 500 written on the side were parked in front of the door with the keys in them.

  "I don't know what a Tajga is, but it isn't an Arctic Cat. Looks like we found our getaway," Maddock said.

  "Yeah, this would be useful if I could figure out where we needed to get away to," Scott replied.

  "How about 25 miles north of your present position in 3 hours, there is a clearing with extraction equipment…" it was Agent Magdalena's voice. Scott's face lit up at the helpful, familiar voice on the other end.

  "Affirmative, we'll be there!" Scott said.

  "Roger…" was all that Magdalena said as her voice again turned to static, and the garage door began opening.

  Maddock and Scott ducked behind the treads of one of the trucks.

  "This is not good," Maddock said.

  The lights in the garage came up. The NVGs switched automatically, giving Scott and Maddock a color view of the interior of the garage. A few generations prior, they would have been blinded by the sudden change in luminosity. Still, they flipped up the goggles to ensure that what they were seeing was real.

  The garage door continued opening, revealing a dozen soldiers standing in snow camouflage wielding AK-74M rifles. At the center of the group a man stood in a green parka emblazoned with a Russian flag and Cyrillic writing on its name tag, it read, "Колин Кроссфилд," Colin Crossfield.

  "Sdacha!" Colin shouted as all of his soldiers pointed their rifles in Scott and Maddock's direction. This was Russian for "Surrender!" Colin said it with a perfect Saint Petersburg accent.

  Scott looked at Maddock, who was scanning his surroundings.

  "Sdacha!" Colin repeated.

  "Colin, you know us! Tell your soldiers to put down their weapons."

  'Who the hell are you?" Colin yelled now in a Southwestern Michigan accent.

  "Your family!" Maddock added.

  "Get out here, or we'll shoot you!" Colin said, sounding somewhat confused.

  "Have your guys put down their guns, we'll come out," Scott shouted from behind the cover of the truck.

  "No, you can come out, or we'll make you come out," Colin shouted.

  "Make us then," Maddock taunted.

  Heavy footsteps crunching in the snow combined with breathing from massive lungs was accompanied by the sound of about a dozen pairs of boots quickly scattering. An electronic beep then sounded, and a loud and familiar roar became immediately close. Suddenly the truck that Colin and Maddock were using as cover was lifted into the air and tossed aside crashing through the insulated sheet metal wall.

  The scent of wet fur suddenly hit Maddock's nostrils as he stood in shock at what he saw. Standing 7 to 8 feet tall was a gigantic fur covered man. He eyed him with angry dilated pupils from eyeballs that looked disturbingly human. The fangs from his protruding maw were beared as a terrifying roar burst forth, spraying saliva and humidifying the air with his hot breath. A thick, green, metal collar encircled his neck, red LEDs blinked in a row of three near the center. This must be how Colin controlled them. They were face to face with the latest iteration of the super-soldier yeti that Vechnozelenaya Technology had developed.

  The beast's thickly muscled arms flexed as he roared again. He raised his hand with an open palm. His dagger-like claws were about to shred Scott, who stood frozen in fear, his rifle limply hanging from his tactical sling. Maddock threw his shoulder into the younger man and knocked him to the ground as he opened fire, putting two, three-ro
und bursts into the center of the beast's thickly furred chest. The monster stumbled back in pain. Maddock grabbed Scott by the collar and ran with him toward the door as Colin's soldiers began firing at them. Bullets bounced around the metal shed, tearing holes in the thin metal walls and piercing the remaining trucks.

  As Maddock turned to let loose a volley of cover fire, he saw the beast standing again. His M4 ran out of bullets as he emptied the magazine into the monster. Shaking its coat, it seemed to completely recover from the almost point-blank fire of Maddock's weapon. Scott had now composed himself, he grabbed his rifle and ducked behind the door to return the incoming bullets.

  The beast now ran toward them, unhindered by the accurate fire, Maddock poured into its chest.

  "Fall back!" Maddock shouted Scott ran back seconds before the monster smashed its way through the doorway.

  They were now in the room containing the cages. The beasts trapped behind the glass came to life, screaming and pounding the thick glass. Maddock quickly realized that one of the creatures was not in his cage. It was this yeti who now roared again. Maddock dropped his M4 and grabbed the Savage 99, which hung at his side on a tactical sling. The beast fell to the ground in pain as Scott now directed fire at the seemingly unstoppable monster. It bellowed forth terrifying screams at them almost like a curse as it once again rose from the floor. No blood or visible injuries were present as it stood. Maddock, who had taken the few seconds the yeti lay on the ground to reload his weapon, directed two more bullets in the yeti's leg. It didn't phase the beast.

  However, instead of approaching them, it turned and grabbed a large cart. Like picking up a card table, the yeti smashed the heavy-duty industrial cart into the cage of the beast who pounded the glass. The glass shattered into millions of tiny bits that were kept in place by the frame of the enclosure. These pieces exploded into the room as the second yeti burst through the broken safety glass. Now two of the beasts stood before them. They eyed them, eerily silent, slowly approaching, assured that they were about to kill the two tiny creatures that lay on the ground in fear before them.