Midnight Zone: a Cade Rearden Thriller

by JK Franks

  The shot sizzled out the end of the shaft straight up into the pilot’s cabin of the ugly, flying machine. The Kamov lurched sideways and slowly started to slide steeply off to one side.

  Cade lowered the drill and grabbed frantically at the side of his head where a patch of his hair seemed to be burning. Tossing his damaged tactical helmet to the side, he threw himself into the snow and ice to stop the pain.

  “It’s going down!” Alan yelled as the Russian Kamov dove over a hill of ice and out of sight. Moments later, the sounds of tearing metal and a screeching sound of an engine locking up brought them all back to the realization of what had just happened. Cade jumped up and helped Alex dig through the other gear bags for her medical kit. Cade tossed Alan a spare rifle. He loaded up on spare mags and slung the rifle over a shoulder.

  He knelt to check on his lieutenant. Her Battlesuit had a gash in one side and blood draining around the seams. She was conscious, but grimacing in pain. Alex inserted some wound packing gently around the gash. “You’ve taken a nasty hit, but it looks…okay. You’re going to be fine, Maratelli, you hear me?” She nodded. Pain still etched across her face. Alex was working feverishly to staunch the bloodflow.

  “Cutter—do what you can for Maratelli. I’m going to try and see what the fuck this was all about. Send McTee down to watch my back.” He walked a few steps, then turned. “Alan…hey, good thinking on the drill. You saved us with that one.”

  Alan looked scared but gave a small head nod as he turned to help Alex work on the lieutenant.

  Cade slapped at the CommDot on his cheek, which was already going numb from the cold. “Director.”

  “Yes, Captain. We have Dee’s report on some of what just happened.”

  “We’ve been attacked, unknown enemy. Two combatants in an old, Russian Kamov gunship. Helicopter has been neutralized, but we do have at least one casualty. The LT is down, I’m going to the crash scene to hopefully get some answers. Someone knew we were here, and they seemed very determined to make sure we didn’t get where we were going.”

  “Acknowledged. Suggest you put drones up as soon as you can and have them provide overwatch,” Margaret said.

  Good idea, although Cade was fairly certain those were in the other vehicle. He scrambled over an ice wall and surveyed the crash site about a hundred yards ahead. Debris from the downed helicopter littered the ice pack. A few small fires burned, but much of the fuselage still appeared to be intact. Brutus was screaming to be let out, and Gus was advising calm and to be wary of a potential trap. They had no idea who they were up against or if any of the hostiles might have survived the crash.

  “Captain, we’re just rolling up now,” McTee yelled. “Alias and I are getting the weapons locker unpacked. Looks like we missed the party, Boss.”

  “Just get your ass down here and cover my six.” Cade thought about it. That only left the new guy, ‘Alias,’ Alan, and the Australian up top for defense. “Give Judah one of the standard weapons, and have him stay close in to support the others.”

  “Roger that. You think there are more hostiles, then?” McTee asked.

  “I have no idea,” Cade answered despondently. This job and the cold were getting to him—there were no easy days or routine missions. We are one of a few hundred humans on this entire continent, and someone is trying to fucking kill us, he thought. “Alias, do a perimeter sweep up there—make sure we don’t have any other surprises.”

  Cade thought about his options, his mind moving into full tactical assessment mode now. Unknown enemy, unknown firepower, and unknown mission, but they mean us harm. It wasn’t much, but maybe he could use that. They needed to spot them from the air, and with the arctic gear they wore, that wasn’t so easy. A part of him monitored the others’ radio traffic. He could tell Maratelli was being stabilized, but they would have to get her out of here. Cutter, the team medic, was calling Chaps back at base camp to see if she could get them a ride. Cade had to ignore that side of the story. For now, he had to assume they still had threats out there.

  Reaching the bottom of the hill, he cautiously began moving toward the twisted and charred wreckage. The reek of burned fuel swirled around him in the bitter wind. The Russian attack helicopter had been called the ‘Black Shark of the Sky’ when he’d run into them in Syria several years back. They were notoriously hard to bring down, but the kid had managed it with a drilling tool.

  “Nomad, suggest you scan the area on IR.” Dee’s voice broke through his inner concentration.

  “Can’t. They were with my tactical helmet, which kinda got fried.” It was an excellent idea, though. He knew he could also scan with the SmartCom, which…he’d apparently left in the MARs-2. “Drones?” he asked hopefully.

  “Not in this wind, Captain. Sorry.”

  “McTee, scan the icepack around the wreckage as soon as you have us in sight.”

  “Roger that, Nomad.”

  Cade closed to within about fifty meters of the wreckage, taking cover behind a pressure ridge of jagged ice. The smells of burning plastic, fuel, and cordite from the guns were everywhere. The pristine scene corrupted by the ugly, wrecked machine.

  “Negative contacts on scan, Cap,” McTee answered.

  Maybe we got lucky, maybe, Cade thought as he advanced on the crash, automatic rifle raised and ready for action. The front of the helicopter was a smoking ruin. Cade could see the blackened hole through the melted acrylic windows. The ice drill had done a number on the cabin as well. He watched a steady drip of dark red liquid leeching out onto the snow. It was too bright to be hydraulic fluid…blood.

  Rising up, he placed his back against the cold metal and did a quick peek into the now open cabin. McTee, who was down and closing, whispered through his earbud, “No activity spotted.” Cade analyzed what he’d seen as he ducked back tight to the craft. One body hanging limply in the seat. Thick green winter parka now covered with blood. He knew the other had been wearing winter white. That would probably make the body the pilot.

  Ducking low, he eased up alongside the front section and popped up to find no one else. No other body. Shit! He reached to pull the pilot’s head up so he could get a look when Dee told him to stop. “Get away from the crash at once, Nomad. It’s rigged to blow!”

  Cade ran awkwardly in the snow and ice away from the machine but knew he’d still be too close. After less than fifty steps, she told him and McTee to take cover. He dove headfirst into the ice as a massive explosion sounded, and a wave of intense heat washed over him, burying him in burning debris, ice, and God only knew what else.

  34

  “Judah, how far are we from the coordinates?” The Aussie looked as cool as when they’d first met, which, given all they had been through in the last three hours, unnerved Cade.

  The older man scratched his gray stubble and said, “Well, mate, I am guessing about seventeen hours’ drive time from here. MARs-2 is in good shape. Yours, though, needs a patch job, looks like bullet holes all along the roof.”

  Cade’s transport had been shot up, but the engine was still in good shape. His head was still ringing from the explosion and the subsequent attack from McTee to put out his burning hair…again. Alan had launched drones, despite Dee’s warning, and they had spotted nothing. No sign of the shooter or shooters. Someone had detonated that chopper, though. Dee had sensed the radio signal arming the device only after Cade had gotten close. Now they had no ID on the pilot, no useable evidence, and a missing enemy combatant.

  Tactically, Cade was left with few options, so he dropped back to basics—take care of those things you can change and forget about what you can’t. Maratelli needed to be transported back to base camp. Chaps was still grounded, so they would need to take her in one of the tracked MARS vehicles. That meant reducing his team by half. Not ideal, especially knowing they had hostiles after them, but it couldn’t be helped.

  “Judah stays with me and Alan,” Cade said. “We need him to navigate us to the location. Alias drives MARs-2 back wit
h Cutter and the lieutenant.” It wasn’t ideal, and Alexandria shot him a look. She was one of his best shooters, but she was also the team medic. Cade already knew she had Maratelli stabilized in a trauma sleeve, and there wasn’t much else they could do for her, but he could not have lived with himself if something else happened to her. These people were soldiers, but they were his responsibility.

  “So, we just going to ignore the bastard out there that attacked us?” McTee growled.

  “I am,” Cade answered, walking away. “For now.”

  The Australian eased up to Cade as he and Alan were dividing up supplies and weapons. “Hey, mate, this is all fun and all, but you know, not exactly what I signed up for. I mean, you guys have some interesting bits and bobs, but, well…someone seems to have taken a dislike to your presence here and, well…not sure I want to be included in that drama.”

  “Oh, really?” Cade asked, never looking up from the load-out case he was filling. “Get to the point, Judah. How much?”

  The man looked briefly confused, then offended. “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t think you quite understand me.”

  “I believe I do. You’ve seen action, you know danger. Hell, you live in this God-forsaken place. Look, I need to go pee, and I’m scared to because I’m pretty sure my balls have frozen off and will fall out as soon as I unzip. So, little Elsa, please tell me how much more fucking money you want to make you feel better about our little drama.”

  Judah’s face broke into a tiny grin. “I believe I would prefer to be known as Olaf if you are going all Disney on me. As for my fee, I was thinking double. Hazard pay and all.”

  “Greedy bastard,” Cade said, slamming the sealed case into the storage space of the MARS-1. “Thirty percent more.” Cade didn’t blame the man for wanting more, but he’d already made a solid profit on the trucks, and honestly, the grimy ole’ bastard seemed to be enjoying himself. He knew if he caved on price too soon, the man would always wonder if he could have gotten more. They haggled for several more minutes, then reached an agreement on a modified rate plus a bonus for mission success.

  Judah held out a hand to seal the deal. “By the way, friend, sorry about your hair.” Cade unconsciously rubbed at the singed area and winced. “And your balls,” Judah said, walking away.

  Several hours later, the single transport was making good time. Doris spoke to Cade through his earbud, “Captain, we have tracked the helicopter that attacked you to a supply ship just offshore. They normally use it to ferry people and equipment to the Russian base a few hundred miles inland.”

  Cade was reluctant to discuss this with Judah so close. He subvocalized a nearly silent response which only the AI could easily interpret.

  “No, it wasn’t the Russians, at least not officially. The bird was idling on the launch pad waiting for the weather to clear when someone forced their way in and had the pilot take off. I have seen video from the bridge as well as listened to the radio calls during the time in question,” Doris answered.

  Cade thought about that. How would someone aboard a ship hundreds of miles away know where they were? Could they have gotten them confused with someone else? Wait, why would a supply helicopter be fully armed? He asked Doris about all of this. She had no good answer for it. She did let him know that the MARS-2 was almost back to the camp, and the infirmary was standing by to treat Maratelli’s injuries. Also, Deuce had sent out Nance and Team WarHawk, who had rendezvoused with Kissa and were checking out his story.

  Ace, Cade inquired internally after Doris had told him all she had to offer. I need a working theory. What are we up against here? Who is trying to stop us, and what will be their next play?

  Hmm, Cade…I dunno. The buzzing voice of his more intelligent persona still grated on Cade’s nerves, but the whiney bastard was devastatingly good at putting random bits of intel together when even the computer AI was stumped. I can tell you there were more than one and, um…well, they probably have to wait for some type of ground transport now. I’d say we’re fine until we reach the hole. That’s where they’ll attack.

  Cade nodded, that was what he would have done, so it made sense. But why? They didn’t know anything. Virtually no one else knew where they were even going…unless Guardian talked. He keyed a message in on his SmartCom for Margaret to have someone check on Samuel. The old man was one wily bastard, but he could think of no other sources that could have leaked the plans.

  Judah tapped on one of the gauges. “Temp is up to twenty-three below. Celsius of course, like…ten below for you Yanks. Going to feel downright balmy out there, boys.” He gazed out at the wind whipping up the snow. “The summer breeze may make it feel a bit cooler, though. You know they say this continent used to be a tropical paradise. Can you imagine palm trees and coconuts? Parasailing off the sandy beaches?”

  “That was around fifty million years ago, dude,” Cade said. “Not like any of us were around then to enjoy it. It was just one of the planet’s warmer periods. So warm, the polar caps melted almost entirely.”

  “So, global warming is a thing?” Judah asked. Then, pointing out the frost-lined window added, “This damn sure ain’t it, no matter what them scientists say.”

  “Climate change is real,” Alan offered. “Shifts in global temperatures happen constantly, just most take place over eons. The big question raging right now is how much humans have affected that process.”

  Judah laughed, “Not enough, am I right, Rearden?”

  Cade just wanted him to shut up about the cold. He wasn’t a fan and hated the fact that he’d been the reason they were all here. The time was nearing twelve AM, but there was still bright sunshine outside. The sun wouldn’t set for another three months. How does anyone ever get used to this?

  35

  Caribbean

  “Nance, you may want to see this,” Coffee said looking over the drone feeds.

  “Can it wait?” She was close to springing the trap on the biologic. She wanted to see what this creature was. The collection of aqua drones was moving into range within the next few seconds. They had lost contact again with whatever had shown up on the scans.

  “I don’t think so,” the big man said worriedly. “The drone pack on our original track are all dropping offline.”

  “Micah, I need you down here,” Nance yelled up to the top deck. “Dee, what’s going on with those fish?” She knew the AI could keep up with multiple events happening at the same time. She, however, was not so skilled. Micah hurried down the few steps and slid into a seat beside Coffee. He began trying to reestablish a connection to the tiny drones as Dee recalled several of the others. “It appears once they cross this point we begin to see corrupted telemetry, then they go dark,” Dee said.

  Simultaneously, she said to Nance, “Sending active pings now.”

  A brilliant flash of blue light erupted several hundred yards from the boat and almost instantly, every electronic device onboard went dark.

  “What the hell?” one of the men said.

  “Dee, can you get electronics back online?” Micah asked into the darkness. Only a tiny exit sign was lit, which was probably running on a battery.

  Kissa said breathlessly, “That was it, that was what took Thera.”

  “Dee? Are you still with us?”

  “This is Doris,” came the reply. “Your local Dee is rebooting, but it appears you were hit by a low yield electromagnetic pulse wave. Analyzing some of the last data from the drones now.”

  Displays and lights began to come back on throughout the boat. “EMP?” Micah asked. “I thought we were the only ones who had a weapon like that.”

  Doris answered, “Micah, if I am reading this correctly, that was no weapon. It was generated naturally, probably by the animal you were attempting to identify.”

  “Doris, you are trying to tell us this squid just generated an EM field?” Nance asked. “What, like an electric eel or something? How would that even work? What kind of animals can do that?” She knew that was a lot of questions at
once, but they were damn good questions.

  “None,” came the simple reply.

  “Most of the drones are dead,” Micah said, looking at the screens. The ones here and those on the original track of the MHD drive.”

  “We may have something,” Doris said. Seconds later, she added, “Dee is rendering the last captured image from the drones now.” Hundreds of tiny points of light began filling the screen on one of the displays. Like a pointillistic piece of art, a shape began to emerge as more and more of the screen filled in. Each active ping on the creature from the numerous drones was being combined into a single constructed image. As the final elements filled in, a collective gasp was heard.

  “What in the holy fuck is that?” Coffee said, physically backing away from the screen.

  The shocked question was the same one each of them wanted to know.

  “Biologic creature does not match any known species,” Dee said almost cheerily.

  “Yeah, I think we would have all heard about something like that by now,” Trondo said, looking down at the screen from the bridge. “Ugly bastard.”

  He was not wrong, the image made up of thousands of dots still gave a pretty realistic image of the ghastly beast. It seemed to defy description. A squat head, flattened on the underside, maybe with differing lengths of tentacles erupting from the neck…no, that wasn’t right, the trunk of the head. The body looked somewhat more familiar, but not much. To Micah, it resembled something akin to an ancient Plesiosaur, one of the swimming dinosaurs, but again…not quite. Something maybe more similar to what people describe as the Loch Ness Monster, but that was just the body. Even that part was different. The torso seemed flatter, almost like a wing, and instead of fins or flippers, stump-like appendages splayed out at odd angles from various points along the body. Then, there were the tentacles, if the image could be believed, at least a dozen of them at various lengths. Several also ended in what looked like hooked claws, and inside each of the tentacles, suckers extended out, something like horns or serrated teeth arranged in a perfect circle.