The Siren Project

by Renneberg, Stephen

  Mitch kicked off the nearby stanchion, trying to keep McNamara’s back to the control room, pushing them both toward the black straps holding the dead automaton. McNamara sensed Mitch no longer fought for control of the torch, just to keep it at bay. He took it as a sign that Mitch was weakening at last. Mitch caught one of the drowned woman’s securing straps, and used it as leverage to push McNamara away from the superstructure, into the void between the rows of nodes. He released his hold on the welder, letting McNamara drift away, beyond arms’ length.

  McNamara looked confused as he floated free, then from the corner of his eye, he saw the collapsed window. He felt the pull of the current, and tried kicking and stroking one handed back to the safety of the node. In a moment of self preservation, he dropped the welder and stroked hard with both hands, but Mitch kicked him in the shoulder as he drew near. McNamara spun around, floundering from the force of the kick and the growing strength of the current. Mitch lunged forward with his free hand when McNamara’s back was turned toward him, catching him in a headlock. He wrapped a node securing strap around McNamara’s neck and pulled it tight, leaning back with all his strength.

  McNamara clawed the strap and Mitch’s headlock with both hands as the suction caught them, pulling them both away from the superstructure. The strap became tauter as the torrent took the drowned woman in its grip, adding her weight to the strap, squeezing it tighter around McNamara’s neck as he clawed vainly at Mitch’s face.

  The suction increased as the immersion solution raced into the control room and off through corridors like rapids through a gorge. Bio processing units were torn from their nodes in a flash of underwater electrical sparks, and sucked tumbling toward the chasm. A drowned body wrenched from its node, struck Mitch hard in the back, slamming him into McNamara and breaking his hold on the node strap. The impact jerked the node strap tight, cracking McNamara’s neck and flinging Mitch out into the void. Mitch was sucked away, with only a fleeting glimpse of McNamara’s lifeless body tangled in the strap with the dead woman.

  Mitch tried to catch the superstructure, but it was out of reach and the racing current was now too fast to swim against. He tumbled, desperate for air, toward the shattered glass of the control room. Jagged fragments angled toward the gaping hole from all sides as the jet of liquid blasted through it. A ten foot long splinter broke off, then he shot through the serrated opening as if fired out of a cannon. Mitch broke the surface as he was launched into the control room, gaining a single gasp of air before being sucked under again, lost in a nightmare of swirling bubbles. He hit the wall hard, spinning around inside a pressure wave before being sucked into the central corridor that ran north through the building like a raging river. The corridor buckled as equipment and furniture swept from adjoining rooms, crashed against the walls and ceiling, sometimes blasting through into sealed laboratories. Mitch’s head bobbed up amid the debris, long enough for a single gasp of air before he was sucked under again.

  The lights in the corridor went out, leaving him in total darkness. He lost all sense of direction as he bounced off walls and floors and debris thumped into him without warning. His lungs screamed for air, then on the verge of drowning, his head bobbed up into the air space close to the ceiling. He snatched a breath, then another, as he saw a glow ahead racing toward him. A moment later and he burst through a shattered doorway into the light, rolling end over end as the river fanned out across the concrete apron bordering the northern wall of the building. The flood lost depth and speed, until Mitch hit solid ground and came to rest.

  He crawled onto his hands and knees, coughing up the fluid he'd swallowed, wheezing for air. To his left, a fire was burning furiously where the air defense system had exploded, and patches of darkness across the otherwise brilliantly lit base marked where lights had short circuited. Ahead was a wide, low windowless building and floundering in the flood tide were the others. Mouse was bleeding from a nasty cut on his forehead, and Gunter cradled a broken arm, while Christa and her mother seemed unharmed.

  Mitch stumbled to Christa, pulling her to her feet but too short of breath to speak. She put her arms around him, hugging him close, as the three FBI helicopters circled above. One of the helicopters put a spotlight on them, while another hovered low to the ground. Lamar stood in the chopper’s open doorway watching the solid stream of liquid pour from the building. Occasionally, a body floated out, torn from its node, sometimes with its skull cap missing, sometimes with severed cables still attached to the head plate.

  Gunter held his broken arm to his chest, watching a middle aged dark skinned man float past, face down. “Such a pity. The first time we find intelligent life, even if we made it, and we destroy it.”

  “Better it, than us,” Mitch said, coughing.

  “He saved your life,” Mouse said.

  “I’ll thank my auto teller, next time I make a withdrawal.”

  Two black helicopter gunships appeared out of the night sky, circling high above the FBI helicopters as they surveyed the wreck of the main building, the dispersing lake of immersion solution and the floating bodies of dead bio processing units. The gunships didn't attempt to fire their guns, they just turned away after a few minutes, and flew off to the west.

  “Where do you suppose they’re going?” Christa asked.

  “To report,” Mitch said, his breath finally returning. “Something tells me there’ll be a lot of file shredding in Washington tonight.”

  When the Apache gunships had vanished from sight, one of the FBI helicopters dropped down to land, well outside the flood zone. Agents clad in black, bullet proof vests and carrying automatic weapons jumped out and ran toward them.

  “At least we won’t have to walk home,” Mitch said as he rubbed a sore spot on his back, “I feel like I’ve been kicked by a dozen mules.”

  “Are you kidding? You got off lightly,” Christa pointed to her shaved head and smiled, “I’m having the worst bad hair day of my life.”

  “That makes two of us,” Christa’s mother said, patting her shaved cranium.

  Mouse rubbed his head, finding blood on his fingers. “Why am I always the one to get hit in the head?”

  “Because,” Mitch said, “Anything that happens to your head is an improvement, even that hair cut.”

  “Oh I don’t know, I kind of like it,” Mouse said, rubbing his baldness thoughtfully, “Most advanced alien species have no hair.”

  Mitch and Gunter groaned. Christa and her mother looked astonished.

  “Do you know this for a fact, young man?” Caroline asked.

  “It’s true!” Mouse declared earnestly. “Highly evolved alien species don’t have hair. They don’t need it, because they evolved with clothes. Have you seen those alien autopsy films? No hair.”

  They started toward the FBI helicopter laughing and groaning, as Mouse proceeded to explain in excruciating detail, his theory linking baldness and extra terrestrials.

  Chapter 2 0

  Mitch hurried past the dozens of police cars encircling the congress building, flashing his presidential clearance at the police outside and the FBI agents inside. Even at the entrance, there was a strange, somber tone to the place, as confused staff and officials were mustered by quiet, relentless FBI agents who now controlled every inch of the building.

  The congressional security unit had been disarmed by the FBI as a precaution, at least until the purge was complete. Inside the senate chamber, confused senators stood in two lines, one leading to Christa, the other to her mother. One by one, the senators were brought before the two women who spent a minute with each, sending them either to the left and arrest, or to the right and freedom.

  Caroline had already given the President and Vice President clean bills of health, then soon after the President had been briefed, he reinstated her as NSO Director and authorized the FBI to purge congress. Supreme Court warrants had been slower in coming, but eventually the final legal hurdles were overcome. Once authorized, Lamar had moved swiftly, taking
control of the congress in under thirty minutes.

  Lamar and his staff tried taking statements from the small number of ashen faced senators under guard, but their conditioning prevented them from answering while Senator Fraser, the only free willed member of the group, chose to remain resolutely silent. Lamar nodded to two armed FBI agents, who handcuffed Senator Fraser, and led him to the door. The senator saw Mitch standing there and for a moment they stood face to face, the senator simmering with anger.

  “You don’t know what you’ve done,” Fraser snarled. “You’ve endangered the security of this entire country.”

  “More guns won’t make us safer, senator, but putting a sick son of a bitch like you away will.”

  Senator Fraser gave him an angry look as FBI agents bustled him away, then Mitch joined Mouse and Gunter at the back of the Senate Chamber. They both looked relaxed watching proceedings, Gunter with his arm in a sling and the latest copy of the Wall Street Journal folded on his lap, Mouse with a fresh bandage around his head, an iced doughnut in one hand and a steaming coffee in the other. He dunked the doughnut and bit into it contently, as if watching his favorite TV show.

  Mitch glanced at the paper folded under Gunter’s good hand. “How’d it go?”

  Gunter shook his head slowly. “I took a bath, but, I have a lot of tapes to listen to.” He smiled, certain he would be financially ahead in no time. “How about the Supreme Court, are they still hedging?”

  “Nope,” Mitch said as he rocked back on his chair, placing his feet on a senator’s desk. “After my testimony this morning, they’re issuing warrants for anyone mentioned in EB’s download. Defense Department, intelligence community, arms industry, you name it. It’s going to shake the entire military industrial complex to its core.”

  “That is good.” Gunter nodded approvingly. “Lamar told us Ackerman was arrested by Arizona State Police this morning, and most of the people working at the Sincom base are now in jail.”

  “Still a few runners,” Mouse added, “But they won’t get far.”

  “It’s going to be a mess to sort out,” Mitch said. “How are the girls doing?”

  “Batting a thousand,” Mouse said with an approving nod.

  I’ll have you know Mr Mitchell, Caroline’s thought appeared in Mitch’s mind with astonishing clarity and a tinge of humor, that I am a woman, not a girl!

  “Jeez!” He sat up suddenly, almost falling off his chair. Caroline was at least thirty feet away and could not possibly have heard his comment.

  “What?” Gunter asked confused, unaware of the telepathic contact.

  Caroline had not turned to face Mitch. She appeared to be focused on the mystified senator standing in front of her.

  But you are right on one count, another of Caroline’s thoughts appeared in his mind, Senator Fraser is a son of a bitch.

  Mitch grinned. “This is too spooky.”

  Mouse leaned toward Mitch. “The FBI say they’ll have a testing machine assembled by the end of the month, something that can identify conditioning. Kind of like a lie detector, only based on the brain’s alpha waves. The design was in the stuff EB downloaded to them. Right now, all we’ve got is Christa and her mom.”

  “I’d say that’s quite enough.”

  “Once this is all over,” Gunter said, “Christa’s mother is going to be studied. They want to figure out what EB did to her. It could open up huge possibilities.”

  Mitch looked at Gunter confused. “You mean, one day, we can book in for a brain enlargement?”

  Good luck with that! Caroline's thought was tinged with humor, and a certainty that they'd never figure out what had happened to her, without EB.

  “Hey, cut that out!” Mitch said, beginning to realize she knew their every thought.

  Mitch heard the sound of female laughter in his mind. You’re lucky Christa doesn’t have my reach, or you’d have no secrets!

  “Cut what out?” Mouse asked confused.

  “Nothing.”

  “Any word on the Joint Chiefs?” Gunter asked.

  “The FBI are rounding them up now for the girl- ... for Christa and her mother, to look at.”

  Better, Caroline congratulated him.

  “It is a pity EB is . . . dead,” Gunter said. “There’s a lot we could have learnt from him. About our own potential as much as his.”

  Mouse cleared his throat embarrassed, then whispered, “He’s not exactly dead.”

  They turned to Mouse in unison, eyeing him suspiciously.

  “How can it not be dead?” Mitch asked.

  “Well, two things made him aware. The cyborg part, that formed his super brain, really just immense processing power, and some really complex software that made him who he was.”

  “Yeah, so?” Mitch asked uncertainly.

  “I downloaded the software to a safe place. There’s not enough computer processing power there now for EB to be conscious, so he’s ... sleeping. Someday, when the computing power grows enough, he'll wake up.” Mouse grinned. “I was worried there wasn’t time to download everything, so I checked this morning. He’s all there, sleeping like a baby.”

  “And where exactly did you send him?” Gunter asked.

  He ensured no one was listening, then leaned close to his two friends. “Where is the most powerful computing center on Earth, now that Sincom is destroyed?”

  “You didn’t!” Mitch whispered.

  “Yep.” Mouse chuckled. “I did. EB is sleeping inside the NSA’s own super computer at Fort Meade, Maryland. It’s only a matter of time before the NSA pump up their processing power enough for EB to live again. Then he’ll call me, and we'll have pizza. I left a little message for him, so he’ll know how to find me. When that happens, the greatest hacker on the planet will be alive inside the most secret computer system on Earth. Pretty cool huh?”

  “You’ll get us arrested!” Mitch said, then grinned. “But I’ve got to admit, I can see the funny side of it.”

  So can I.

  Mitch stopped laughing and glanced toward Caroline, who stood with her back to them. Christa finished with one senator and turned toward Mitch, giving him a welcoming smile, then returned to concentrate on the next senator in line.

  “I figure,” Mouse continued, “That with EB on our team, our industrial espionage business will really start to make some money.”

  Mitch sobered. “Interesting notion.”

  Forget it. Your freelance days are over. You boys are coming to work for me. There’s a lot to do cleaning up this mess, and right now we’re all that’s left of the NSO.

  “Wait a minute! I’m through with government spook agencies. And besides, I was never part of the NSO!”

  Mouse and Gunter looked confused.

  “You feeling okay?” Mouse asked.

  Mitch waved toward Caroline, explaining. “It’s Christa’s mother, she’s using her psychic crap to listen in on us.”

  Their eyes went wide with understanding.

  “She can do that?” Mouse asked.

  You can either work for me. Or you can spend the next twenty years in psychotherapy, once I tell the FBI you three are conditioned.

  “You drive a hard bargain lady,” Mitch said.

  Female laughter sounded in his mind again. You better get used to it. I’m a push over compared to my daughter! And she’s got big plans for you.

  Visit the author's webpage at:

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  THE MOTHERSHIP

  by

  Stephen Renneberg

  “A compelling, visionary must-read for literary sci-fi fans” - Kirkus Reviews

  A massive alien ship crashes into one of the most remote places on Earth – cutting all contact with the region.

  Within hours, Major Robert Beckman and his specially equipped Contact Team are hurriedly dispatched from Area 51 to investigate. Is it a forced landing, or the beginning
of an invasion - a technological treasure trove, or an extraterrestrial pandora’s box that spells disaster for life on Earth?

  Infiltrating the vast tropical wilderness of northern Australia, Beckman’s team encounter strange machines, alien structures and a handful of human survivors struggling to evade capture.

  When Beckman’s team penetrates to the heart of the Mothership, they discover an answer they never expected and a universe far larger than they had ever imagined.

  Paperback Length 560 pages

  ISBN: 978-0-9874347-3-9

  THE KREMLIN PHOENIX

  by

  Stephen Renneberg

  “Renneberg delivers a typically exciting thriller, with plenty of sharp turns, heavy weapons and touches of science fiction” - Kirkus Reviews

  In the 21st century, Craig Balard, a young New York lawyer, is unwittingly swept up in a conspiracy of global proportions that threatens to trigger the fall of the West and the rise of a new totalitarian world order.

  Hunted by agents of the international conspiracy, Craig encounters a mysterious woman who knows his every step – before he makes it – and who intervenes to keep him alive for her own purposes.

  He discovers she is a hologram, transmitted back in time from the late 23rd century, where a small group of survivors of a cataclysmic war are trying to use him to change their past in order to save mankind’s future.

  Under her guidance, Craig becomes the fulcrum of time, where his every move triggers changes in the timeline that will either save humanity, or guarantee its extinction.

  Paperback Length 334 pages

  ISBN: 978-0-9874347-7-7