Eugenic Reprisal (Halcyon Gate Book 2)

by J. M. Preiss

  “I guess,” Mason said. “I don’t know what all we’re going to learn. I mean, we’d be able to learn a general idea why this hab complex is here, if that is what it is, and we’d be able to get a general idea of when we are because I don’t know about you, but the tech we are using is out of place.”

  “That’s bugged me as well,” Jacob said.

  The lift continued on in silence as Jacob and Mason mulled over things. The companions were surprisingly quiet, keeping their own counsel. As it descended deeper into the complex, the numbers tirelessly ticking away, nothing eventful happened. When it finally slowed to a stop, both men took up flanking positions on the door before it opened.

  The door to the lift slid open to reveal another small room where corridors met in front of the lifts. Cautiously sweeping their corners, Mason and Jacob slid out of the lift. Nothing gave away the signal of being any kind of automated defense. Nobody waited for them despite how they used a lift and surely showed up on a security board somewhere.

  “I don’t like it,” Mason said.

  Jacob nodded as he moved to get better views of the corridor they were about to enter. Leaning around the corner, an unassuming corridor with a flashing red light greeted him.

  “No warning klaxon still,” Mason pointed out. “I don’t like this.”

  Jacob felt a tingle on the back of his neck and spun around. He looked where a corridor met up with the room they were in. Moving over slowly, he kept his rifle shouldered but lowered, he moved into position to be able to look down the corridor that ran perpendicular to the lift access. Two armored men were walking towards them.

  “Company,” Jacob stated. “Two targets inbound. Unarmed, but they’re armored.”

  “They’re wearing body armor, but they don’t have any weapons. That doesn’t sound like a security response team to me,” Mason said as he stacked up behind Jacob. He kept an eye to the other entrances for the room they were in.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Jacob agreed. “Doesn’t look like one either. Their stance is all wrong. They seem to be awkward in it. They also seem to be a bit apprehensive.”

  Mason grunted.

  The two armored figures continued on their way towards them. Their body language suggested they were having a conversation that neither of them cared to have.

  “Non-lethal takedown,” Jacob said.

  Mason relaxed his grip on his weapon and prepared to use it as a melee weapon.

  The two men came to the entry to the small room. The closest one turned his head and looked right at Jacob.

  “What-“

  He didn’t get a chance to finish his words. Jacob broke into action and smashed the butt of his rifle into the man’s face. The man’s head snapped back and he staggered backwards, seemingly dazed from the blow.

  The second figure stepped around the staggered one and produced a crude looking club from his side. Swinging it at Jacob, he attacked.

  Mason came from behind Jacob and deflected the blow of the club. Stepping through his own blow, he body checked the figure into the wall while moving past Jacob into the corridor. Grabbing the now staggered figure he had attacked, Mason dragged him into the corridor with him and threw the figure to the ground.

  The staggered one recovered from his dazed state and lunged at Jacob. Jacob stepped into the attack and brought his armored elbow up, smashing it into the figure’s chin. Staggering back once more, the figure flailed at Jacob, but Jacob sidestepped and used the butt of his rifle as a hook. He caught the figure’s left leg and yanked. The figure fell and sprawled out on the floor.

  Mason was locked grappling with his opponent, the rifle acting as a staff between them that each vied for. Spinning to his left, Mason slammed the figure against the opposite wall. He shoved himself up against the figure and smashed his helmeted head into the faceplate of the figure’s helmet. The figure’s head snapped back, bounced off the wall behind him, and then snapped back forward from the recoil. His grip loosened on the rifle.

  Jacob stepped up beside the ongoing melee and slammed the butt of his rifle squarely in the figure’s ear, knocking him flat on the ground.

  “Fun times,” Mason said with slightly labored breath.

  “Simple stuff,” Jacob replied. “Let’s secure them before they come back to their senses.”

  Mason and Jacob dragged both figures into the room before the lifts and shoved them against the wall. Holding them against the wall with one hand, they secured their rifle and then pressed the deactivation button on the underside of the armored helmets.

  The helmets morphed back behind the figures’ heads and down into the collar piece revealing two young men not more than 15.

  “They’re kids,” Sara exclaimed. “Why would kids be in armor?”

  “I wonder,” Jacob said. Looking squarely in the eyes of the one he was holding, he asked, “What is this place? Why are you in armor?”

  “You attacked us,” the boy said. “You know what this place is. We’re just the militia patrol.”

  “That answers nothing,” Chelsea said.

  “Enlighten us,” Mason said.

  “Why would we want to do that?” the second boy shot at Mason. “You killed Jurgen and Frank in cold blood. You set off something in our atmosphere reprocessing facility and destroyed it. You’re terrorists! We’re not helping you.”

  “Terrorists?” Sara asked. “I can understand us being considered enemy combatants but being called a terrorist is certainly unpredicted.”

  “What military are you?” Jacob asked. “What militia are you a part of?”

  “I’m not talking,” the boy under Jacob’s hand said. “You’re a terrorist, and you don’t deserve an answer.”

  “We don’t have time for this,” Sara sighed.

  The boy convulsed and screamed as electricity arced out of Jacob’s armored hand and ran across the boy’s chest. Blue arcs of energy cascaded off his shoulders and into the wall.

  “What are you doing?” shouted the other boy. “We’re just militia! We don’t know anything.”

  The second boy screamed as electricity from Mason jolted him.

  Jacob and Mason pulled their hands away quickly and stared at them in unison. They gave each other a glance and then looked back at the boys that had collapsed to the ground.

  “We have questions,” Jacob stated. “You have the answers. Answer them and you won’t be hurt more than you already have.”

  “I don’t agree with torture,” Mason whispered on their communication channel.

  “We need results,” Chelsea droned. “They weren’t going to talk. Now they have incentive.”

  Muttering, Mason looked down at the boy leaning against the wall below him.

  “This is but a taste of what we are able to do,” Mason reluctantly played along. “Don’t give us a reason to display our other abilities. I assure you, they are more unpleasant than what you just experienced.”

  The two boys shared a glance, the lip of the one in front of Jacob quivering in barely restrained fear.

  “Wha-, what do you want to know?”

  “Shut up, Mark,” the boy in front of Mason yelled.

  “What is this place? Why is there a habitation complex here?” Jacob asked Mark.

  “This is a bunker facility,” Mark answered. “We’re a safe haven for all who are selected to come here.”

  “Shut up!” The boy in front of Mason squirmed, but he stopped moving when Mason laid his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

  “A safe haven from,” Jacob continued.

  Mark gave the boy beside him a sidelong glance before answering.

  “From the Darkness.”

  Jacob felt goose bumps ride along his skin.

  “What do you know of the Darkness?” Mason asked, something seeming close to a twinge of fear creeping into his voice.

  “It’s the end. That’s what we know,” Mark answered while the other boy squirmed a bit more. “That’s all we know. This is a place where we are supposed
to be safe.”

  Sara and Chelsea were quiet.

  “I’m not liking this,” Mason said on the communication channel. “I thought the Darkness thing was something in the future. We’re in the past. How do these people know about it?”

  “They’re working with Adam,” Jacob offered as an answer. “If they’re working with Adam though, why are we here? We’re supposed to be on his side and undoing whatever it is that causes the Darkness.”

  “Maybe the people in charge of the eugenics program know about the Darkness. Maybe we have to stop it because they are actively fighting Adam and he is slowly losing. Maybe,” Mason trailed off. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

  “Neither do I,” Jacob said.

  Chelsea and Sara remained quiet.

  “You said we destroyed your atmosphere reprocessing facility,” Mason said. “Why does a hab need that? You should be able to pull from the air outside just fine.”

  “We’re deep underground,” Mark answered as he was elbowed by the other boy. “It’s also supposed to protect us in the event things get worse than we know. We’re entirely self-contained.”

  “Entirely?” Mason asked. “How?”

  “I don’t know,” Mark answered. “We’re just new members of the militia. We don’t know anything.”

  “Let us go,” the other boy pleaded. “He’s given you what you want. Please, let us go.”

  “We can’t let them live,” Chelsea said. “They’ll sound the alarm and give away our position.”

  “She’s right,” Sara chimed in. “We’ve apparently managed to get into the facility without giving away our location to a primary reaction force. We need to dispose of these boys and continue about our mission.”

  “The mission has changed,” Jacob said softly over their channel. “We’re still at disadvantage, Mason. How do you feel about changing that around?”

  “Think we can do it now?”

  “Now seems the best time,” Jacob replied. “We know that this place is completely different than we were told. I don’t know why the intelligence would lie to us, but things are not as they should be in here-”

  “Things aren’t as they should be anywhere,” Mason mumbled.

  “And I’m thinking that we can figure things out for real here,” Jacob finished. “In the future, I had access to historical information. What I read didn’t mention anything about what we’re seeing now. Safe havens from the Darkness? There was no mention of that. Something is changing things in the timeline.”

  “Reasonable,” Mason answered. “Us just being here changes things. Us being in the future changed things. It apparently changed things in the past as well. I don’t know what we’re going to find out though.”

  “Halcyon is at the center of this,” Jacob said. “Do you know of Halcyon?” Jacob asked Mark and the other boy in front of him.

  “We, uh-“

  “Shut up, Mark,” the other boy shouted. “You’ve already told them enough. We can’t tell them more.”

  Mason looked at Jacob.

  “They know about it,” he said over the channel. “We’ve spent too much time in this location. We need to move on.”

  “Agreed,” Jacob nodded. “Let’s find a place to lock them in. We can destroy the lock and trap them in there. After all this is over, they should be able to be rescued.”

  “We should terminate them,” Chelsea said again. “They’re of no more use to us, and letting them live can only cause us issue.”

  “I’m not in the habit of killing people that don’t need to be killed,” Mason growled. “We let them live. Find a room nearby that we can use.”

  “This is a mistake,” Chelsea grumbled.

  A small map showed up in the corner of Jacob’s display. It flashed a room that was just down the corridor from where they were. It was small and looked like it was a maintenance room or storage room of some kind.

  “Stand up,” Jacob said as he lifted Mark to his feet. “Walk.”

  Jacob waited for Mason to follow suit, and they walked behind the two boys as they went down the corridor towards the room.

  “Enter this room,” Jacob said.

  “Why-“

  “Don’t ask, just do it,” Jacob said before the question could be asked in detail.

  The two boys looked at each other, over their back at the two men with rifles pointed at them, then at the door to the room. They both slumped in defeat and shuffled into the room.

  Jacob activated the door panel and closed the door. Once it was close, he hit it as hard as he could with his fist. His armored fist plowed through the panel like it was nothing, the power assist lending itself to the force of his punch. He dug around the inside for a bit, making sure to cause as much damage as possible.

  “Shock it,” Jacob said.

  He saw more sparks come from inside the panel when electricity arced from his hand to the surrounding components. Everything looked singed. Jacob extracted his hand and looked over to Mason.

  “We need to get to that networked computer,” he said.

  “Do you think we’re going to get the answers that we want from there?”

  “The answers that we want? I doubt it,” Jacob answered. “But we will be getting answers nonetheless. We need to get more information. I doubt that we’ll be able to understand everything that is going on, but it should give us some kind of idea.”

  “An idea,” Mason said. “We need more than an idea. Things are just too jumbled. We need some sort of focus.”

  Jacob shook his head as he thought.

  “Look, Jacob, I know you have more training with working with these kinds of situations,” Mason began, “but I just don’t know if that training is going to do us any good.”

  Jacob was caught off guard. He never had considered his training wouldn’t serve him well with what he was facing. It had been hammered and drilled into him that his training was the only thing that he could trust. He had been conditioned to never deny what they had done to him. They had completely rebuilt him from the ground up after they broke him. He was who he was because of them. If he could no longer rely on his training, what could he rely on? He felt the floor disappear out from below him.

  Chapter VIII

  “Jacob, I can’t believe I’m finally getting to see you,” Lisa said. “I’ve missed you so much. I know you are doing what you want to do, but it has been hard.”

  Jacob quietly looked at Lisa; her unrestrained joy at seeing him barely scratching his cool exterior.

  “Our marriage may have been one of arrangement by our families,” she continued, “but I have really come to love you. The time that we have spent together, I cannot imagine anybody else for me.”

  “I’m,” Jacob paused for a bit. “I’m glad that you have come to feel that way. I am in love with you as well. We are lucky.”

  He stood stiffly as she hugged him close to her, his body firm in his stance. He was at a loss for how to respond.

  “Jacob,” Lisa asked. “Are you okay? Aren’t you glad to see me?”

  When she backed away, she had a twinge of pain on her face.

  “I’m,” Jacob began, but he had trouble finding the words. “Yes, I am. I am very glad to see you.”

  “You don’t seem it,” she said as she narrowed her eyes. “What’s changed? You seem different.”

  “Different,” Jacob said. “Yes. I am different. They made me better. I can help people now. I can save them and stop problems before they occur.”

  Lisa started to cry softly. Jacob searched through his mind, but he couldn’t determine how best to deal with the situation before him. It was so alien.

  “You are very different. I hardly recognize you now. On the one hand, you have become more defined and chiseled, clearly from the training that you’ve gone through, but on the other hand,” Lisa trailed off and stifled a sob. “This chiseled exterior isn’t just an exterior. It’s like they completely changed you. You’re toned and chiseled through and through. What di
d they do?”

  “They did,” Jacob started slowly, “what they had to. It is the only way to provide safety to everyone. There are things out there. Things we don’t know about. We have to be ready.”

  “What don’t we know about?” Lisa asked. “I know that people exist in the world that covet the power that controlling a reactor and a factory will give them, but what don’t we know about?”

  “There is plenty that we don’t know,” Jacob replied slowly. “We must be ready for it.”

  Lisa huffed. “Jacob, I don’t understand what you are saying.”

  “Understanding isn’t required,” Jacob stated. “Just know that I am now more capable of taking on whatever task is laid before me, find solace in that fact. I can protect everyone.”

  Lisa wiped away some of her tears, but she remained silent.

  Jacob kept searching through his mind to figure out what to do, but the proper response remained elusive to him. Unable to determine what to do, he grabbed her and pulled her in close. He hugged her even though it felt forced. Lisa laid her head on his shoulder.

  “It’s been two years,” she said softly. “That’s a long time.”

  “It is,” Jacob said.

  “Do we get to be together now?”

  Jacob cocked his head to one side. “Yes, we do.”

  “Good,” Lisa said as she hugged him tighter. “I don’t know who you are anymore, I can see that now, but I still love you. I’m sure I’ll love the new you, and I’ll help you find the old you.”

  Jacob cocked his head to the other side. Who was the old him?

  Chapter IX

  Jacob slowly regained consciousness.

  “He’s coming back,” Sara said over the communication channel.

  “How long was I out,” Jacob asked.

  “Just a few minutes,” Mason responded. “A lot longer than I would’ve liked, but nothing was able to rouse you.”

  “I see,” Jacob said as he took stock of the situation. He noticed that he was still standing.

  “When I felt you lose consciousness, I locked the armor before you started to fall,” Sara explained. “Let me unlock it.”