The Hidden Society
Page 44
“It’s down there?” Willow demanded.
“Yes, because that’s the direction they’re moving toward. If they get inside that center they’ll have access to the entire history of the Society and everything it’s ever done,” Karl told him. “And you and I are finished.” He didn’t want to tell him they were dead men anyway for just knowing this mountain was where the information center was located. It wouldn’t have done any good anyway.
“Everything the Society’s done. Including what we’ve done?” Willow asked.
Karl turned to him with a hard, cold expression on his face and said, “It’s probably a computerized center, Willow, and it contains information about the Society that could destroy it if it’s released on the Internet, and us with it. Everything the Society’s ever done would be released to the world. Every government would come after us with everything they’ve got.
There’d be no place on this planet we could run and hide once that information got out. And there would be no one to help us.”
“That’s why Julian Franks gave those flash drives to the mysterious person, and faked the death of Marlene Done?” Willow asked.
“Yes,” Karl said in a cold voice. “Julian wanted to destroy the Society and everything it stands for.”
“Have you got them?” Derrick yelled over his com-cell. His voice was filled with anger.
Karl took his com-cell out of his jacket pocket and answered, “No. We can’t even see them anymore.”
“You saw them?” he asked.
“Yes, Leader, but now they’ve disappeared in a wooded area on the east side of this flat face,” Karl said.
“Go and kill them now!” he ordered. “I’m heading for the flat face. I’m on the ground.
Charlie and Lester are with me. We should reach the flat face in a minute. We’ll be in a position to catch them between us and kill them both.”
“Leader, how would they get into the center?” Willow asked.
“Who is this?” Derrick demanded angry that he knew about the information center.
“Willow John a loyal soldier,” he replied.
“That’s not important,” Derrick told him. “Just stop them!”
“Julian would never have told them about this place unless he also gave them information on to how to get inside,” Karl said. “Did he do that?”
“Do like I ordered,” Derrick replied.
“Answer my question, Leader?” Karl demanded.
Derrick stopped running and looked at his com-cell wondering what to say?
“It’s too late for debate, Leader,” Karl said.
He was right and Derrick hated admitting it. “Yes, Julian probably did do that, Karl. Now listen carefully to me. The information center is a basic computer controlled automated center with sophisticated hardware and software. And Julian probably gave them the code they need to download everything in the center on the World Internet.”
*
Dorothy was following at a safe distance and so far Derrick was so involved with catching Marlene and her accomplice he hadn’t thought about her. But once he did she knew he’d know she knew about the information center and her death would be a certainty if Marlene and her accomplice failed.
She was in clump of thick desert plants watching and listening to everything. She took her night goggles off, they were useless in daylight, and dropped them into her backpack, slipped the backpack on and moved to her right. Making sure she couldn’t be seen by Karl and Willow. She wanted to be behind both of them when the shooting started and she didn’t want them to know she was there. Derrick was a fool and could be taken out at any time. Karl and Willow were professionals and had to be killed quickly before they knew where she was firing from. Charlie and Lester were also a threat to her, but easily handled after Karl and Willow were dead. Neither of them had the skill or experience of Karl and Willow.
She stopped behind a large rock and lay on her stomach and raised her binoculars which hung from her neck and looked to her left away from where the others were. Where the hell is
he? She thought scanning the area yard by yard looking for Dodge. I don’t know how he got that chip out of him, she thought. But I know he’s here.
*
Dodge was watching and waiting for Karl and Willow to get closer to the top of the flat face of the mountain. They were within range of his electric semi-automatic, but he didn’t want to risk shooting and missing them. He was in a poor defensive position. He had to take them both down within seconds of each other before the other could respond. He was certain they had picked up a heat signature from him when he moved into the depression when it was dark. But they probably weren’t sure what they saw was a human or an animal. Once he started shooting, they’d know it was him, and that he’d turned against them, and killed Betty.
*
“Now go and kill them,” Derrick ordered Karl and Willow. “We have them between us. It should be easy killing them.”
*
“We’re near the bottom,” Larson told Marajo.
The flat face side of the mountain was just fifty or sixty yards away from where they were.
“And we’ll have to come out of these trees,” she added.
He stopped and took out his com-cell and turned it on. It immediately started to hum.
“What are you doing?” she asked, standing behind him and breathing as hard as he was. “They’ll hear that humming sound.”
“The instructions on the second drive said to type ‘map’ on the keypad of my com-cell,” he said. “A map will appear and show us where to go. Then I type ‘open’ and a door will open allowing us to enter the center.”
“That door is in the open?” Marajo asked.
“Probably in the flat face of this mountain,” he said as he removed his gloves, put them in his pockets, and typed ‘map’.
“We’ll have to come out in the open,” she said.
“Can’t be helped, Marajo,” he said. A map immediately appeared on the small screen. “Look.” He held the com-cell so she could see the screen.
She looked at the screen and sighed between breaths, “Right out in front where we’ll be sitting ducks.”
“Get your weapon out,” he said. “Once we leave these trees we can fire a few shots in their direction, and maybe force them into hiding while I type ‘open’.”
She took out her automatic, checked to make sure a round was chambered, flicked off the safety, and said, “I’m ready, Larson.”
He nodded his readiness as he said, “If I were them, I’d be above us. Shooting down at a target is easier than shooting up or to the side.”
“So I’ll shoot up and to the side behind us if necessary,” she told him.
Larson checked his weapon as she’d checked hers, put it back in his parka pocket because he couldn’t shoot and use his com-cell at the same time, and said, “Then let’s go and destroy the Hidden Society.”
“Or get killed trying,” she added, moving in front of him. “I’ll shoot while you type. And please, Larson, be quick, and for Christ’s sake don’t make a mistake.”
“I won’t,” he promised and prayed he didn’t make a mistake, because he wouldn’t have a second chance.
*
Dodge saw Marlene and her friend move out from the cover of the trees near the base of the mountain on the right side of the flat face. He looked in the direction of Karl and Willow and saw them moving across the top of the flat face. He saw them stop as soon as they saw Marlene and her friend. They were still farther away than he liked, but he had no choice now but to start shooting. If he waited until they got close
r, it would be too late for Marlene and her accomplice.
He raised his electric semi- automatic, took aim at Karl, the smarter of the two, and fired three quick rounds.
*
No one heard the soft popping sounds made by Dodge’s electric semi-automatic, but Willow who had moved in front of Karl just as Dodge fired, caught all three volts of death. Two hit him in the chest, and the third hit him in the stomach. He didn’t even have time to cry out in pain before he fell forward off the mountain.
Karl saw Willow fall and knew instantly who had shot him.
“Dodge!” he screamed as he ducked for cover behind a nearby rock. “You piece of traitorous shit!”
*
Marajo ran a few feet in front of Larson holding her weapon up and to the right in the direction she thought the Society’s killer would be firing her weapon as fast as she could pull the trigger. The loud booming sounds of the weapon echoed off the flat face of the mountain like explosions. The bullets slammed into the top edge of the flat face and ricocheted off to the south.
Larson, a few feet behind her passed his com-cell to his left hand, and looking at it, typed ‘open’ on his com-cell’s keypad with his right hand faster than he’d ever typed anything in his life.
Both stopped suddenly when Willow’s body slammed into the ground two yards from them to their left. His weapon still held tightly in his right hand.
“Oh, God, I killed him,” Marajo screamed as she looked at Willow’s body.
Larson looked up at the flat face of the mountain and saw a jagged looking stone door that looked like it was the opening to a cave open silently in the flat face ten yards off to their right.
“Over here, Marajo, run inside!” he screamed at Marajo while he ran for Willow.
She saw him running for Willow and screamed, “Forget him!”
She saw the open door and ran for it.
Larson ran to Willow’s body, grabbed Willow’s weapon from his right hand, leaning to his left in case the weapon fired, and headed for the door in one single swift movement. He ran as fast as he could and slammed into the back of Marajo as she was entering the open door knocking her to the ground and inside the center. He dropped Willow’s weapon as he fell beside her, rolled over on his back, still holding his com-cell in his left hand and typed ‘close’ with his right hand on his com-cell’s keypad. He prayed the door would close.
The door immediately closed just as silently as it had opened.
“Made it,” he gasped as he saw the door close.
Marajo, lying on her stomach, looked back to her right and saw the door close and exclaimed in a loud voice, “Twenty years in hiding.”
***
Chapter 56
Dodge’s shots had killed Willow, enraged Karl, and forced him to dive for cover, but it was Marajo’s wild shooting that had forced him to remain under cover to avoid her bullets even though he heard them hit the top edge of the flat face of the mountain. There was always a chance her wild shooting was nothing but an attempt to fool him into believing she couldn’t shoot straight forcing him to expose himself to her fire, but Karl saw no reason to believe that and take an unnecessary risk. When he rose up on one knee and looked for them in front of the flat face of the mountain, they were gone. And he didn’t have to think about where they went. Somehow they had managed to get into the information center
Derrick didn’t have to think about where Larson and Marajo went either. Marajo’s shooting had forced him and Lester and Charlie to duck for cover behind some small rocks and drop to their stomach. But he knew they were inside the information center because he’d seen the stone door open in the flat face of the mountain and them running into it and the door closing after them, and he was livid. He was also terrified because he’d seen Willow fall from the top of the flat face to the ground a few yards from the open door.
Is everything I’ve worked so hard for all these years about to end? Was the only thought that passed thought his mind as he got up and ran toward the flat face of the mountain.
“Open that fucking door!” he screamed as he ran for the flat face of the mountain. His face was a mask of rage, fear, and hope. Rage because Marlene and her accomplice had gotten pass them and had gotten into the information center, fear of what they would do now that they were in there if they had the right code, and hope that he, Lester, Charlie, and Dorothy would be able to get in and stopped them from downloading the information in the master computer’s hard drive which would activate all the other computers in the center and their hard drives. Once this center’s master computer was activated the other computers in the center would immediately do as the master computer did and download their hard drives of information to wherever the master computer downloaded its hard drive, and so would the computers in the two other information centers.
Lester and Charlie were running a few feet behind him looking around to see if there was anyone around who would shoot them.
All three slide to a stop in front of the flat face of the mountain, and stood staring at it for a few seconds.
“Open it!” Derrick yelled turning to Lester.
“Yes, Leader,” Lester said, taking out his com-cell and walking to the right side of the door and raising the small stone slab that covered the USB port, and plugging his com-cell into it. He typed a code on the keypad. He pushed enter and waited for the stone door to open.
Nothing happened.
“Open it!” Derrick demanded again, pointing his electric semi-automatic at Lester’s stomach.
Lester, looked at the weapon, and immediately retyped the code and hit enter again.
Nothing happened.
“Why the hell won’t it open?” Derrick demanded, ready to shoot Lester.
“The security program will have to override the code they used to get inside,” Charlie explained.
“What do you mean the code they used to get inside?” Derrick asked him in a loud voice.
“It’s the same code you’ve got, isn’t it?”
“No, it isn’t,” Lester told him. “There’s no way they could have gotten the code we use.”
“Shit!” he cursed. That bastard Julian would have been smart enough to put in a special entrance code Lester and Charlie didn’t know anything about that could override the original code. That’s why they didn’t have to stop and plug a com-cell into this USB port.
“How long will it take the security program to override the code they used?” Derrick demanded.
“A few seconds,” Charlie said.
“Then why hasn’t it opened?” Derrick growled at him in a voice filled with rage.
“Lester’s code confused the security program. It’s probably running a check on Lester’s code to see if it’s a valid code,” he explained, looking at Lester who was starting to retype the code a third time. “No! Don’t do that, Lester!”
“Why not?” Lester asked, stopping and looking at him.
“The security system will interpret a third attempt as an attempt to break into the center’s computers and shut down the system while the master program conducts an analyses of the code to make sure it’s a valid code,” he explained.
“Why the hell would it do that?” Derrick asked Charlie as he turned his weapon away from Lester’s stomach and pointed it at Charlie’s stomach.
“It’s a safety procedure,” he said in a frightened voice, looking at Derrick’s red angry face then at the weapon pointed at him. “The Society’s computer technicians programmed that into the master computer to prevent someone from accidentally entering a code.”
The confused expression on Derrick’s red face said he didn’t understand.
“How long must we wait?” Derrick asked Charlie. He lowered his weapon realizing if Charlie was right he could be waiting for ten minutes, and killing him wouldn’t reduce the time limit.
“Maybe a minute while the security system validates the code Lester has entered,” Charlie answered.
Derrick saw Karl come down off the mountain and move in a protective manner south.
“Where are you going?” he yelled at him.
“To kill that son-of-a-bitch Dodge,” he answered yelling back as he moved behind a large rock. “He’s turned against us. He killed Betty and now Willow.”
“Forget him!” Derrick ordered him. “What’s important is getting into the center and stopping that woman and man. You can kill him later.”
Karl turned and looked at Derrick with hate in his eyes. His expression blamed everything on Derrick. If Derrick had let him bring in more soldiers to block whatever Marlene and her accomplice tried, none of this would have happened. Now Marlene Done and her accomplice were inside the center and Dodge had turned traitor, and it was all because of Derrick’s lust for absolute power over the Society. For a moment Karl thought of turning his weapon on Derrick and killing him, but who would replace him? Another worthless power mad, greedy idiot from among the members who lived in an isolated world of luxury with little or no knowledge of what the real world was like. Whoever took over would have the killing of a leader to use against him as well as the killing of Lawrence Ames. He turned around and looked at Willow’s body and thought, there’s no witness to my killing Lawrence now.