War Wagon

by Al Shield

  The three auto electricians he had on staff couldn’t even begin to tell him what the wires seemed to be made of. They were rubbery and flexible but not even the sharpest tool in the workshop could even scratch the surface. The ends of the ‘wires’ seemed to mesh into whatever they were plugged into, rendering them unremovable.

  As for the sheer size of it, it was creeping to small tank dimensions. Murphy had worked on tanks once and this thing reminded him a lot of one, only with more spikes and a lot more features that made little sense.

  While it puzzled them greatly and secretly terrified most working on it, the team couldn’t hold back their immense fascination as they poured over every inch of every surface and reported each and every finding out loud for the official record.

  This report is going to rival the bible in length Murphy thought to himself as one of his team leaned in to take hundreds of photos of the beating heart engine alone from every conceivable angle.

  ‘So when do we take it out for a spin?’ Sally had asked when it first rolled in.

  ‘When you can find me a friendly driver the size and dimensions of a fully grown grizzly bear.’ He’d replied, awestruck as they dragged it off the truck.

  Not that there was an obvious way of turning it on either. No slot for a key, no obvious ignition and the beast chained in the interrogation room flat out refused to tell them how to start it.

  Working out the ignition was on the list. Practically everything was on the list.

  In fact as soon as he heard word of it’s arrival, he’d phoned his wife to explain that he might not be home for dinner. Not tonight or potentially the rest of the week. The orders for around the clock operations had seen fit for that. She was well aware of the secret nature of the work he did and accepted the news without complaint, reminding him that they lived close by and she was more than happy to drop off a hot meal and leave it with security at the front gate at any time.

  One day he hoped, far in the future when he was happily retired and they had moved far far away from the base, he hoped to be able to tell her what he and his team were working on at the moment. Where he’d begin with something like this though, he had no actual idea.

  ‘WHO IS HE REALLY?’ Omega slammed his hands on the desk firmly causing the director to flinch. ‘Or are you keeping me in the dark intentionally?’ He’d told the fat man and his bodyguard that he was getting some water and neither the pair nor the exoskeleton clad soldiers gave him any notice as he slipped out, far too enthralled with the chained Dar'kannag and what they could learn from questioning.

  ‘I know who he is, but I am not privy to his real name. I’m not sure too many people up top do. His designation is “Nameless One”’

  Omega just shook his head sadly.

  ‘So this ‘nameless’ fat bastard waddles in and we have to give him control of the operation? This is madness.’

  ‘No’ she said firmly ‘This is operational. We have apprehended beings obviously not of this planet, weapons and a vehicle far beyond human comprehension and we have barely scratched the surface here. This makes those up top nervous. Very nervous. So someone made the call and brought him in.’

  ‘He doesn’t look like anything special to me..’

  ‘That’s part of his charm. Or the closest thing to charm he’s ever going to possess.’ She had spent a grinding ten minutes with him before he marched into the interrogation chamber to take over and it had been a nauseating experience, even though most of her time was on the phone verifying his identity while he watched on amused. Taking no chances with a security threat of this magnitude, she had conferred with five separate top level authorities for clearance and he had provided the correct codes for each one. One general she had spoken to had even sworn loudly when she passed on the code but she just didn’t have time to learn the full story.

  ‘He turns up, takes control of the situation and if the war room calls for it, the situation and all involved suddenly disappears without a trace. That fat bastard is apparently responsible for more redacted files than all of our agencies combined.’

  ‘I’m high level, why have I never heard of him?’

  ‘You’re not at a high enough level.’

  ‘Yet he seems to know about me, about the upgrades...’

  She took her glasses off, rubbed her eyes and sighed.

  ‘Alex he knows about everything. Even stuff you didn’t think he or anyone else should be privy to. When he waltzed in, he made a crass joke about you and me...in Cuba.’

  A stunned look crossed his face.

  ‘But that was what...12 years ago now? How the hell does anyone other than us know about that night? Not even my best friends know about that!’

  ‘Well I certainly didn’t tell him.’ She shrugged. ‘Relationships between operatives at our level no matter how brief are grounds for relocation or worse. So I never told a soul. But he knows. It seems he makes it his job to know. Not that he can really do much with that information now but I think he just wanted to flex his power in front of me..’

  Omega paced around the office in frustration, occasionally stealing a glance at the scene in the room down below. Dar'kannag was shaking his head at something asked. Here was one of those once in a million lifetime moments and this fat man had waded in wrenching control and was ruining everything.

  ‘So he calls the shots...until when?’

  ‘For as long as he deems necessary.’

  ‘Which makes me what, a dead weight in this operation? If he wields as much power as you say, what’s to stop him shipping my team and I very far from here?’

  ‘Absolutely not’ she snapped back. ‘Like it or not, you have built a rapport with the beast somehow and that seems to be the only thing that is currently allowing us to have at least one operative in that room. You are now our only chance to question it directly.’

  ‘But everything we learn is just going to go to him anyway!’

  ‘Let me put it this way Alex. You are one of the only people on the planet to not only come face to face with a being to new to us that it defies description but to communicate with it and learn as much as you can. So are you going to let one fat man and his goon squad take that opportunity from you?’

  He paused to absorb that for a moment and then nodded solemnly, a guilty smile creeping up on his lips. She had hit the nail right on the head. Dar'kannag had provided the ultimate reason to stay. Without his interference, Omega might have found himself shipped off to some arctic sub station for guard duty to run out the rest of his distinguished career.

  He nodded his thanks again which earned him a small smile in reply, grabbed some water in a paper cup from the nearby dispenser and walked back down the stairs to the interrogation below.

  As he quietly walked back into the room, a thought suddenly dawned on him. After that quick conversation, which was the more dangerous beast here? The one who had carved a bloody path across the countryside or the one who had potentially done the same, only in a well made suit?

  CHAPTER TEN

  The questioning that had started at the crack of dawn with Omega and interrupted late in the afternoon by the Nameless One continued well into the long night and into the next morning. But even after hours of questions, neither the mysterious government official nor Dar'kannag seemed to tire. It was the Nameless One’s bodyguard who suggested that they break for half an hour, if not just to use the time as an opportunity to bring in some rations for the soldiers.

  The fat man looked irritated at the idea of having to pause his interrogation but seeing tiredness starting to creep into the eyes of the soldiers on constant alert, he relented for a short break. The twenty would be divided into groups of five and each group was allowed twenty minutes to stretch, piss and fuel up before returning and relieving the next section. They were highly trained and experienced soldiers all but even the best needed a break sometimes, especially in such a tense environment.

  Given the complexity of the exo-skeletons, Omega figured it’d take
far longer than twenty minutes to simply get out of those rigs, let alone do anything else.

  Still running on his excitement from the first time he laid eyes on the captive, Omega didn’t feel tired either - although the triple shot coffee he’d snuck out to grab earlier was also assisting in keeping him sharp. He’d been sipping at it slowly and during the rotating soldiers break the smell of it make the big monster curious.

  ‘What is that strange concoction?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s called coffee.’

  ‘What animal does your hot blood come from?’

  ‘Not an animal, it’s made from beans. Plant life. Grown, roasted and then blended in to a powder to infuse with water. It’s very popular right around the world.’

  Dar'kannag gave him a disgusted look.

  ‘You drink plants? Ahh it is no wonder you are all such a weak little race...’

  Omega took another big gulp.

  ‘Then tell me what you drink beast? What’s a popular drink from where come from?’

  ‘The blood from the slain’ he smiled happily. ‘Fermented for a seven day, doused in the dried fens from the temple of night and heated. A truly deserving drink for those glorious in battle.’

  ‘Okay that’s enough of that!’ the Nameless One chided as he and his bodyguard entered the hall, returning from their quick toilet stop. ‘You’ll be swapping fucking patty cake recipes next!’ He wasn’t very happy that Omega was chatting to his prisoner behind his back.

  ‘Patty cake?’ Dar'kannag looked at Omega quizzically.

  ‘It’s not important.’ He replied and took a nearby seat, completely ignoring the hard stares from both the Nameless One and his bodyguard. In fact Omega couldn’t help but notice over the last few hours that the guard had been sizing him up when he thought he wasn’t looking. Was he looking for a weakness? Did he want to test his mettle? Or was he privy to the same information that his boss was? Omega was quietly hoping there would be a time soon when it would be just the two of them alone. Then he’d get an answer, whether the bearded man wanted to give one or not - he wasn’t one to be scrutinised without explanation.

  ‘Now, where were we?’ The Nameless One consulted a clipboard a nearby soldier passed him. They had covered quite in a lot in a short time, topics such as bone weapons, clan leadership and even Dar'kannag’s very limited knowledge on how portals like the one he fell through was created. The Nameless One however still had hundreds of questions he was dying to have answered. ‘You’ve mentioned sorcery a few times, tell me how t-’

  ‘I have changed my mind.’ Dar'kannag interrupted.

  ‘Wha...about what?’

  ‘Meat was the first one I was going to crush when I get free... but I have decided that he is far less irritating as you are dear egg. Therefore I shall relish squeezing you until your bones crack. And then I will kill Meat.’ He nodded in the agents direction. Seated towards the back of the room, only some of the nearby soldiers caught the quick little smirk on Agent Omega’s face.

  ‘I see...’ Nameless took a deep breath and let it out in a very exaggerated manner. ‘You still have it in your massive horned head that you’re going to get out of here somehow?’

  ‘Of course!’ His vicious smiled widened. ‘You have three of four of us. Even one of us is more than a match for your paltry little show of force here.’

  It was the Nameless One’s time to smirk now and he was having a difficult time attempting to hold back his chuckling.

  ‘This amuses you does it little egg?’ His eyes narrowed.

  Nameless nodded, still struggling with keeping things under wraps. He let out a little chuckle sound, breathed deeply again and turned to face the beast.

  ‘I was going to share this with you later...but it’s too good a moment right now. Your son is actually on route. One of my teams found him.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

  ‘Dressed as a soldier? Burnt out sockets where his eye should be? Can’t be too many of those running around.’

  An angry look came across Dar'kannag’s face but he remained silent.

  ‘The thing is...it seems he ate something he didn’t agree with..’

  ‘Lies.’

  ‘Someone slipped him a hot bullet sandwich..’

  ‘You speak of lies..’

  ‘...and he just yummed it up!’

  ‘My son would not fall that way!’

  ‘Dead as a doorstop. His body is being flown here as we speak. I wonder what we’re going to do with though? I’m hoping to have it stuffed and mounted as a trophy in my office back hom-’

  ‘LIES!’ Dar'kannag roared at the top of his voice which cause the fat man to instinctively jump back a full step. His bodyguard and the soldiers immediately moved into action, snapping their guns up and directing them right at the monster. Even Omega found himself in a firing stance with his pistol drawn. He hadn’t even thought of doing it, his body had just naturally moved as soon as the wave of roaring sound hit.

  ‘I have entertained your useless questioning for too long now!’ He continued yelling. ‘And I will not answer anything more until I see my son. If what you say is true, bring K’Dian to me!’

  ‘Hold up, you do not call the shots here you big lump, I do!’ Nameless had regained his composure and barked right back at him.

  ‘Oh egg...oh egg, I will relish crushing you slowly. So very slowly. Hearing each bone crack in turn, watching the floor wash away in your blood.’ He spat and the green phlegm narrowly missed the Nameless One. ‘The time for talk is over, now bring me K’Dian!’

  Over the next hour many attempts to keep the beast communicating were tried but ultimately all of them failed. The Nameless One pleaded then threatened to conduct experiments on Nex. His bodyguard was tasked with persuading him with the hammer Omega had used earlier but after countless swings, he got nowhere other than a fierce glare. Even a pair of soldiers in their powered armour were order to drive their fists into Dar'kannag’s face repeatedly but the beast weathered the storm. Aside from the occasional grunt of discomfort and the firey look that blazed in his eyes, he remained silent.

  In the end the Nameless One had no choice but to comply. An hour later the transport had arrived and four medical personnel under heavy armed guard wheeled the body in on a gurney.

  ‘Bring him closer to me.’ The beast finally spoke softly, the first words the room had heard in hours. ‘I want to see him.’

  As they slowly wheeled the gurney closer to him the bodyguard took over, ushering the medical staff away. The armed guard remained in place though - extra security just in case. Nameless One moved the sheet gently away to expose the soldiers head.

  Dar'kannag’s eyes widened as he took everything in and for a few moments, he just stared, fixated on the body in front of him. Everybody else in the room had also stilled, not daring to move a muscle nor make a sound to interrupt him. At long last, he closed his eyes and spoke softly again.

  ‘Enough. Take my son away.’

  The Nameless One nodded and the medical team wheeled the body out of the giant room. He was about to make another crack about being in control but thought better of it, considering how the beast had quieted right up over the last couple of hours. He’d let him dwell on the sudden turn of events for a while and how he truly was trapped here with no hope of rescue. Let that sink in and find out everything they wanted to know and more as he hope faded out.

  He’d talk some more. They always talked in the end. It was only a matter of time.

  At the back of the room, Omega was quietly texting the Director on his phone. He knew that it would have been safer to ask her directly but too many trips in and out of the room would have looked suspicious. He just hoped the paranoid fat man hadn’t brought anything along that monitored their own scrambled communication system inside the base.

  >I NEED TO SEE BODY UP CLOSE.

  -?

  >SOMETHING FEELS WRONG

  -GUT FEELING?

  >YES

  -YOU DON’
T HAVE CLEARANCE. FAT MAN HAS OWN TEAM. THEY FRONT INVESTIGATION.

  He sat back and thought about that for a moment. If he couldn’t be there, maybe someone he trusted could.

  >CAN YOU CONVINCE HIM TO ADD ONE OF OURS TO THE TEAM?

  -WHO?

  >PATTERSON. OR KORG MAYBE. WHOEVER YOU CAN.

  -LOOKING FOR?

  >ANYTHING. SOMETHING DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT

  -I DON’T THINK THIS IS A NAMELESS TRICK. HIS TEAM WAS BESIDE THEMSELVES

  WHEN THEY ARRIVED.

  >SATISFY MY CURIOSITY?

  THERE WAS NO REPLY for close to a minute.

  -ACK. BTT.

  Short for “Acknowledged, burn the trail.”

  He deleted all the messages and as a precaution, removed the memory card from the device and crushed it in his fingers. He carefully fished out another one from a small case in his shirt pocket and inserted it back in. Nobody had been paying him any attention, all too busy watching the body wheeled out and the fat man organising the security watch while others got some necessary and overdue sleep. Questioning would resume in a few hours after some rest and rations.

  There was still so much to ask and so little time to ask it in.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Even though everyone bordered on exhaustion the base was a huge hive of activities over the next two days. Reports were called in and filed into a quickly growing database from every department over every new discovery. Even details normally thought to be insignificant were logged just in case, right down to the sound the metal of the War Wagon made when tapped lightly with a workshop hammer.

  The Engineering team were making steady progress in cataloging every part of the vehicle even though much of it made little sense. Hopefully when the brass ran out of questions for the chained beast, they could add a few about the wagons inner workings. They still might not make sense in this world but at least they'd have a name for it.