Midnight Zone: a Cade Rearden Thriller

by JK Franks

  “Who the fuck are you, and why do you want us dead?” he said, watching as the craft turned, lining up its mounted cannons for a kill shot.

  31

  The water glistened a brilliant shade of turquoise. Even after a lifetime of living and working near the ocean, Kissa was still mesmerized by the view. The beauty held a dark secret, though—one that had taken Thera, and one he was determined to uncover. Talking with Rearden had steeled his reserve. He felt more confident now that someone else knew, someone who could hopefully help.

  His eyes had scanned the ocean for hours, looking for any sign of the creature. Any sign of authorities. He was on alert for anything out of the ordinary. Ocean, sand, seabirds, an occasional fishing boat…nothing unusual. Yet, his heart still pounded when he thought of what stalked him beneath the surface the previous day. What had it been?

  Hours passed with no other word from Cade or Doris. Several times Kissa checked to make sure his phone wasn’t dead. They hadn’t told him what to expect. Would they just call the local authorities? Surely, Cade knew better than to allow that. The sound of a speedboat got his attention, and he turned and scanned in the opposite direction than what he’d been expecting. A pinpoint of dark followed by a plume of white sea spray. The boat was coming directly toward him, and it was moving fast. As it closed quickly to a quarter mile, he realized it was far larger than he’d thought. A few hundred yards offshore, the boat suddenly cut power and drifted swiftly toward the same docking point he had used.

  He could see no insignia on the dark blue hull, nor did the people on board appear to be police. The one who was handling the controls offered a friendly wave as a young man jumped out and tied the boat off. Kissa had nowhere to hide on the tiny island; if these weren’t friendlies, then he was screwed. And, it seemed unlikely that his former Army buddy could have arranged assistance this quickly.

  “You Kissa?”

  The woman seemed friendly but had an air of command authority. He nodded.

  “I’m Nance. Captain Rearden said you could use an assist.”

  “Yes, thank you, thank you so much. You have no idea how relieved I am to see you.”

  She quickly introduced him to the others on her team. “Micah, Trondo Williams, who we all just mostly call Sir or Apache. And the little princess there beside him is Coffee. Kissa looked up at the hulking shadow that resolved itself into a smiling mountain of a man.

  “What are we facing, Kissa, and where did Thera go missing?” the woman asked.

  Kissa gave a more detailed explanation of the disappearance and everything he had seen. He pointed out locations on a digital map the boy produced. He watched fascinated as they replaced the maps by overlays of real-time satellite views which Micah rolled backward over the past twenty-four hours. “Who are you people?”

  “We’re friends,” Micah said.

  “You aren’t the Army, although most of you look like you could be,” Kissa offered.

  Captain Nance looked around the small group. “We are not military—we are part of a rapid response team. Cade leads one of our other teams. Our affiliation is not with the military, but with the U.S. Government. Unlike most agencies, we are not restricted as to where we can operate or what tactics we can use. Somehow, friend, you managed to contact the one person who could probably help you the most. Now, before it gets dark…why don’t we go investigate where your fiancée disappeared.”

  The dark hull of the forty-eight foot, San Remo sport cruiser idled to a stop and drifted over the same water Kissa and Thera dove the day before. Micah began unpacking one of the travel cases. Kissa had left his much older and smaller boat at the old repair yard. “We going down now? Should I get my gear?”

  “Not until we know what we’re up against. Dee, anything on the scope?” Micah asked.

  Kissa was unsure who Dee was, he’d heard all of them talking to her several times, but he’d only seen the four of them so far. It was a large boat, he assumed someone else could be aboard. Kissa watched as Micah looked around, touched his cheek, and said, “Thanks.”

  “Nothing unusual out there on any of the scanners. Help me get some sensor drones into the water.”

  Trondo stood, grabbing a rack of the dull, aluminum tubes and carried them topside. Kissa got the rest, and Micah unpacked what must have been a control system. “These are submersible drones?”

  “Yeah, autonomous operating, nearly unlimited dive time, and rated to 1500 meters,” the boy said.

  Kissa was staring into the fisheye lens that occupied the entire front third of the little device. “Never seen any this small, nor with those kinds of specs. Damn.”

  “We’ll start out with fifty. Since we have no idea what we’re looking for, except your fiancée, I’m going to have Dee handle the specific scans. She can vary sensor arrays to cover our bases.”

  “Like what?” Then, looking up, he added, “And who is this Dee?”

  Micah smiled, “Kissa, you have a lot to learn, but not now. Dee is our onboard computer system— that’s enough for now.” They dumped the aqua-drones overboard all at once. The tiny craft looked like a school of fish; they took a second to orient themselves in the water, then all sped away in every direction imaginable. “Let’s go down to the lounge, Captain Nance should have the displays ready. Trondo, you have watch, okay?”

  Down below, Coffee and Nance were cycling through the various imagery coming in. The displays were better than HD, better than anything Kissa had ever seen, in fact.

  “We can use our goggles if we spot anything to give us a pretty good VR view, but the displays are better for scanning through the various feeds,” Nance said.

  They watched as schools of colorful fish darted out of the way of the speeding drones. Then, the edge of a reef came into view on another screen. Life teemed around the outcropping. “Wow,” Micah said. “Look there.” He pointed to one of the screens, and with just a gesture, moved it from the small display to the largest. Three enormous whale sharks swam lazily toward the camera. The little drone circled them at a slow speed, the camera picking up every detail.

  “It is gorgeous down here, Kissa,” Nance said, eyes glued to the displays. “I mean, I’m sorry about Thera, and I know she must be all you’re thinking about, but the beauty of this place is simply breathtaking.”

  Kissa nodded; he still felt the same, even with the ache in his heart this day. “Thank you, Captain. I am honored to share it with you.” He felt uneasy with everything they were doing for him. He’d just been hoping for…hell, he didn’t even know. He just wanted someone else to know what had happened. Someone that might believe his story. These guys, though, had shown up in no time, outfitted a state-of-the-art boat, and had some of the best gear he’d ever seen. Slowly, the pieces began to slide into place. Cade had mentioned to his command that it might relate this to something they were working on. “Can you tell me where Rearden or Taylor are?”

  Nance shook her head, “Sorry, you haven’t been read in, so for now, not allowed. I can say that Cade is nowhere close, though. Team WarHawk got the win on this mission.” Micah nodded, and Coffee looked ready to high five, but looked at Kissa and pushed his enthusiasm down somewhat.

  “We have something on sensor,” a female voice said from one of the displays. The imagery from that drone suddenly filled all the displays.

  “What are you detecting, Dee?” Micah asked.

  “Energized electrons and a weak magnetic signature.”

  Micah looked thoughtful, then nodded. “MHD?”

  “Possibly, it is very weak and widely scattered, but that would be my guess.”

  “You care to clue the rest of us mere mortals?” Nance asked.

  “Uh, sure, sorry,” Micah said. “A magnetohydrodynamic drive, or MHD, accelerator is a method for propelling vehicles using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts. It literally strips the electrons off the molecules of water as it passes through the thruster engine. Really quiet, very efficient, and ideal for ma
rine use.”

  “Would it produce a blue light?” Kissa asked, still in obvious awe of the level of sophistication Rearden’s friends possessed.

  The computer answered, “It could, Kissa. The system uses powerful magnets, usually rare Earth magnets, and a lot of electricity. The energized field could possibly emit a plasma glow, or it could just interact with the naturally occurring bioluminescence in the water. That is not a known effect of the currently operational versions I have on file, though.”

  The islander nodded, fear pounding in his temples as he considered encountering the beast again. “Can we follow it?”

  32

  “I tell you it was not a machine, no craft. What I saw was alive!”

  Coffee walked up from the galley carrying a tray of sandwiches. “Kissa, we heard you the first ten times, but trust these guys. They find evidence of a craft with an exotic propulsion system, then let them chase that lead to ground.”

  Kissa nodded reluctantly, his dreadlocks bouncing in front of his red, swollen eyes. He was frustrated and out of his element. Nance put a hand on his knee. “We follow the clues we have. Maybe they go nowhere, maybe we get something. Give it some time.” She took a bite of sandwich and a long pull from her water bottle before continuing, “You’ve had a long day, eat something and get some rest. We’ll wake you if we spot anything.”

  The man nodded again, his hunger and fatigue finally winning out over all the other issues he was facing. While he doubted he’d be able to get any rest, they all heard gentle snores coming from the bunk-room minutes after he entered.

  Darkness had fallen, the calm seas were making gentle sounds against the side of the boat. Micah was on watch duty as Nance made her way forward. “Hey, Turner, brought you some chow. Anything out there?”

  “Thanks.” He took a bite and stared out at the sky full of stars descending in all directions. “Nothing so far. Heard some sounds—I guess they were dolphins or something and fish splashing. Actually, the place is a paradise. Just sitting here marveling at the night sky. Have you ever seen this many stars?”

  She had, but didn’t want to dredge up all those memories right now. Desert battlefields often had gorgeous clear nights like this, but all they did was hide the horrors happening down below. “So, there are others out there?”

  The night sky was bright enough he could see her arm outstretched and hand pointing up. “Yes,” Micah said confidently. “Probably a lot of them. We are now fairly confident that intelligent life is pretty abundant in the universe and, according to Doris, a lot more diverse than we would have ever imagined.”

  The thought made her feel small, out of control. Kristen Nance did not like the feeling and was increasingly questioning how this fit into her idea of God, the universe, and her role in it. A flash of light several miles away made them both jerk their heads in that direction.

  “Dee, did you catch that?” Micah asked at once. Trondo was at the helm, but Dee was piloting the boat as they slowly pursued the fading trail of bluish photons.

  “My sensors picked up an anomaly approximately seven miles away,” the computer assistant informed.

  “Is it along the course we are heading?”

  “No, Captain Nance. Even taking into account wind direction, current, and drift patterns, that heading is outside of whatever produced the MHD drive signature. Would you like us to alter course to investigate?”

  “What do you think, Micah?”

  The young man thought on it, working out the possibilities in that brilliant mind. “Lots of creatures out here that can produce bioluminescence, some quite large. Also, some species are known to group together for protection or breeding possibly, so you can have huge colonies all producing a synchronized light show, but seven miles? No way any of those are that bright. I suggest we check it out.”

  “Have Trondo change course, Dee. Let’s go see what’s out there,” Nance ordered. The San Remo cruiser was a rental, so very little of their automated systems had been installed on the craft. Still, it fit their needs nicely. The boat made a gradual turn to a more easterly direction.

  “Dee, keep most of the drones pursuing the other track while we check this out,” Micah suggested.

  Minutes later, they were over the spot Dee had marked on the GPS map. Micah had the aqua drones scouring the bottom for whatever was out there. Knowing the water would adversely affect some sensors, he also launched a series of air drones to circle the area. These were larger than the bird-shaped mini drones they used in combat situations. These looked more like a typical hobbyist model but were bristling with sensitive cameras and sensors and were almost totally silent.

  “Nothing so far,” Coffee said, watching one bank of monitors.

  Nance had Dee cycling through all the available wavelength spectrum from the overhead drones. “Wait, what was that, Dee? Back up and pause,” she said, focusing in on one part of the image. Just for an instant, Nance caught a glimpse as something briefly showed on the far edge of the search grid. The drones cycled through the electromagnetic spectrum faster for anyone but Dee to interpret. So, Doris and Riley had developed a program that combined the entire EM view in a way to make anything unusual stand out, whether it was flagged on IR, magnetic, or even gamma ray or night-vision. Whatever it was, it didn’t match Dee’s alert criteria, but Nance felt sure it was something. Instincts were something humans brought to the party.

  “Trondo, southeast, slow ahead,” Nance yelled, wanting to move in the direction of whatever she’d seen. “There,” she said to Dee as the image of something moving fast flicked briefly through several of the wavelengths.

  “It is large, probably fifteen meters, and appears organic,” Dee said. They could see that whatever the blob was appeared to be jointed near its midsection, the body undulating sharply side-to -side. “The profile does not match any of the known biologics in the area.”

  “So, it’s a creature?” Coffee asked with more than a hint of worry creeping into his voice. The islander was right.

  “Dee, can you alert Kissa and have him join us?” Nance asked. She hated to wake the man if this was nothing more than some big ass fish, but he was the expert.

  “Certainly, Captain.”

  “We have some activity off the starboard side,” Trondo called out from above. “Looks like more of the flashing.”

  Kissa was bent over a laptop with a pair of headphones on. They’d been slowly closing in on the creature, and Kissa agreed it was an organic creature. Most likely a single, not a collective biomass all schooling together. Biologic. “I’d say it's hunting, although not like any marine predator I am aware of, none that size at least.”

  The team had been trying desperately to get the underwater drones in the vicinity, but each time they closed in, they lost all signals from the object. The aerial scans were no more helpful. The thing was turning into a full-blown mystery.

  “You sure it’s not a shark?” Coffee asked. The big man had already let it be known he didn’t care for fish with teeth.

  “We have relatively harmless sharks around here, mostly nurse sharks, a few hammerheads, but not the man-eaters like bull or great whites,” Kissa responded. “This thing is too large even to be one of those, and the way it moves…just so fast, then goes completely still. I’d say it was an ambush hunter. Some of the readings remind me of a giant squid, but those are also unheard of in our waters and these shallow depths.”

  “Unheard of, but not impossible?” Micah asked from the deck above.

  “We’re wasting a lot of time and fuel on this chase,” Nance said. “Let’s bring as many of the drones as we can into play. Dee, track the likely course of the creature, then encircle it with drones above and below. Have them all go to active sonar as soon as they are in range. Light this thing up, so we can verify what it is and then get the hell back to our mission.”

  “Doing it now, Captain,” came the immediate reply.

  33

  “Cap, cycle rounds to C12,” Alan said.
<
br />   Dee was already making the munitions change as the Kamov nosed down and again began firing the massive twin cannons. “C12,” Cade said aloud. Those rounds only do one thing, make lots of smoke. The firing sounds of the weapon changed as the new rounds were designed to travel slower and relatively short distances. Each was loaded with a chemical compound that reacted with oxygen when fired to produce a super-dense fog in the immediate area. Hundreds of the rounds now flew between Cade’s gun and the enemy airship. Cade also heard the sound of something else coming to life. The unmistakable energetic whine of a lot of power pushing through whatever it was Alan had unpacked.

  “Down, Nomad!” Maratelli yelled just before a brilliant beam of light lanced out and into the fog-bank. The sound of the helicopter changed momentarily, then resumed its advance. The nose and windshield were nearly free of the smoky cover. The line of shots advanced toward the trio, and Cade was out of ideas. He turned to see the others using the electronic sampling drill to fire a beam. The thing used some proprietary method to melt ice away and had been a late addition to the field gear for this mission. Apparently, it had multiple uses. Cade grinned as they lined up for another shot. Suddenly, Maratelli crumpled to the ground, blood spraying behind her.

  Cade leaped up. His first instinct was to help his lieutenant, but he knew they were all dead if they didn’t stop this attack now. Alan was struggling to raise the heavy drilling unit. It was fastened to a steel tripod designed to be pointing down into the ice, but now it faced high overhead. Cade shoved a shoulder underneath and pushed up. “Blast that fucking thing out of the sky, Alan!”