Shadows of Ash (The Nameless Book 2)

by Adrian J. Smith

  “You’re going to need a guide, mate,” Gaz said, “someone who can pacify the queen.”

  “What about the other prisoners? Are they dangerous?”

  “Hardly. Most of them are sick anyway.”

  Cal raised her eyebrows, as if to say, “It’s your rodeo.”

  The key to the board was attached to a retractable keyring on the guard’s corpse. Like the other victims, his neck was broken, and his skull crushed. The neck was otherwise untouched, telling Ryan that Siphons hadn’t killed him.

  The thick blue doors screeched as the locking mechanisms released. All but Gaz fled back the way they had entered. Gaz stretched his back and strolled over.

  “Thanks mate, ma’am,” he said nodding at Ryan and Cal.

  “No worries. Which way?” Ryan said.

  “Down there.” Gaz pointed deeper into the gloom.

  He led them on, his pace slow but steady, like he was just taking his dog for a reluctant walk in the park. After another hundred meters the corridor ended at a pair of double doors, painted in the same blue as the cell doors. Bright light flared from beyond the doors. A keypad once attached to the wall had been smashed off, and one of the doors was twisted and warped. Scratches and dents covered the middle. Gaz squeezed through and helped Cal.

  Ryan blinked a few times, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the glare. All the surrounding surfaces had been painted white, apart from a solid black line in the middle of the wall. Maybe painted to stop the illusion of a whiteout.

  The damage was less in here. Some internal windows had cracks; some had been broken altogether. But even down here there was evidence of people combusting. Ash silhouettes lay on the floor, on chairs, and over workstations.

  Gaz didn’t pause. He strolled on, seemingly unperturbed by the pervasive deaths. Ryan stared at the back of his head as they walked. Perhaps he had seen too much, become accustomed to it. Desensitized.

  They walked past more labs. These were clean rooms with large fans, equipped with hazmat suits with an oxygen supply hanging on hooks. In other rooms, a large window overlooked a small space. Long rubber gloves reached into it so the scientists could perform tasks without coming into contact with it directly. Ryan had seen it before in research facilities that tested viruses.

  Farther along they walked past robotics labs and rooms filled with computer equipment.

  Gaz stopped outside another doorway. The door had been torn from its hinges and hurled across the room. It was embedded in the sheetrock. Fear gripped Ryan. What on earth had the strength to do that? Gaz grinned and pointed. Ryan followed his gesture.

  The room was the size of two basketball courts. At the far end, naked and squatting on a table, was a red-haired woman. Beyond her was a separate room with a large viewing window in which stood two Japanese men, staring. The red-haired woman turned and eyeballed Ryan, cocking her head to the side. Sam whimpered and bounded over to her. She hugged the dog tight and ruffled his ears. Was she responsible for all the damage and the dead security forces?

  “Who’re your friends, Gaz?” she said.

  “They’re here for them.”

  “Of course they are.” The red-haired woman turned back and continued her vigil.

  Cal stepped into the room and nudged her comms. “Targets located. Over.”

  “Copy that, Alpha. Booth. Allie. Status?” Sofia said.

  “In position.” Booth and Allie confirmed.

  “Standby,” Cal said.

  Gaz flicked on a light switch, bathing the front half of the room in light. Glass tanks three meters tall and a meter deep lined each wall like an avenue. Cal gasped and held her hand to her mouth. Ryan still had his weapon trained on the naked woman. He turned his head.

  The tanks were filled with deformed humans, preserved in some type of liquid. Some looked like Egyptian mummies, their skin pulled tight over their bones. A couple of tanks held skeletons, twisted and warped, with spiky protrusions like the man Ryan had seen in the cell. Several tanks held bloated remains, covered in boils, and another held a body with a second head growing from its shoulder.

  The last few tanks held failed experiments, showcasing the same traits as the prisoners Ryan and Cal had released. A man with freakishly long fingers, but not only that, his ribs had broken through his skin, so it looked like he had two ribcages, external and internal. A woman with misshapen legs, contorted to strange angles. Her top half was covered in incandescent scales and her face was frozen in agony. The final tank held a man. He had thick rolls of skin so large they folded back on themselves, forming clusters of waves that seemed to have suffocated the life out of him.

  Ryan clenched his fist at his side but kept his gun trained on the two Japanese men. They were responsible for this building of tragedy. Of Moreau-like research. Part of the sick quest of OPIS, fueled by a desire to reform planet Earth as they wanted.

  He ignored the appalling contents of the tanks and, with Cal, strode up to the glass. One of the Japanese men stood clasping his hands behind his back. He was the spitting image of Touma Yamada, right down to the steely gaze. Ryan spotted an intercom and pressed the talk button.

  “Your father sent us,” he said, addressing Takeshi. “After seeing those prisoners and these tanks, I’m not sure I want to release you.”

  Takeshi remained silent, as if he knew his father would have the upper hand – the edge.

  The other occupant stood and showed Ryan a small, remote-like device. “Hi, I’m Doctor Ando. This opens the door over there. If you subdue A-three, we can come out.”

  The red-haired woman smiled, then glared at Ando.

  “I’m guessing you want him?” Ryan said.

  “Oh yeah. The doc and I go way back. He took so much from me, but not my memories. I was Ebony in those days.”

  “It would appear we have an issue. Yamada has friends of ours. If we don’t return his son to him, he’ll kill them. I can’t let that happen. I swore to protect them, and I hate breaking promises.”

  Ebony pursed her lips. “When I was young, my father took me to the county fair. I loved it. The smell of corn dogs and cotton candy, and those little roasted nuts with caramel. We played carnival games and rode on the rides. I swore I was going to puke but I never did. While my father was in the toilet, a nice man talked to me. Asked me how my night had been, asked if I wanted the large teddy bear he’d won. I said, ‘What about your kids?’ He said he wanted me to have it, to just follow him, and it was mine. What kid wouldn’t, right? I followed that man. If it wasn’t for my schoolteacher seeing me, I would’ve ended up just another missing girl. A statistic on a milk carton. Years later, and you would’ve thought I’d learnt my lesson. Nope. Like an idiot, I followed Ando. Who are you to deny me my revenge?”

  She unfolded her legs and stood up, her eyes glowing. She had no fear. She took five steps to one side and dressed slowly in a pair of loose cotton pants and a top that hung on a row of hooks. Lastly, she tied her hair into a ponytail.

  “That was your handiwork back there?” Ryan said.

  “They created the soldier. Now they must do battle with it,” Ebony said. “You can take Takeshi, but Ando is mine.”

  Ryan’s finger rubbed the trigger guard. He had seen the empty shell casings, the snapped necks. The crushed skulls. Could he take her out?

  “I need both. We can take you with us. Take you home.” He crouched slowly to get close to her face, keeping his back to Takeshi and Ando. “Listen. I don’t give two shits about the doctor, but I’m guessing he must press that remote to get out. He’s never going to do that with you here. Let us go with Takeshi. You can circle back, and Ando is all yours.”

  “I need him to stay in that room.”

  “Why?”

  “Stay and you’ll see.”

  “Alpha team. Incoming. Multiple hostiles.” Booth’s voice crackled over the radio.

  Cal ducked back into the room. “Incoming,” she said.

  Ryan acknowledged that he’d heard the warning b
y flashing the okay sign.

  Ebony’s head snapped up. She snarled and sprinted from the room in an incredible burst of speed. A barrage of gunfire rattled the lab windows.

  Ryan pivoted and waved to Ando and Takeshi. The side door hissed and clicked open. Takeshi shoved past the doctor to stand before Ryan.

  “Where is my father?” he said in heavily accented English.

  “Waiting with a helicopter.”

  “Let’s go, then. What are you waiting for? The crazy bitch is gone.”

  Ryan rolled around Takeshi, using his body like an NFL defenseman. He drove his fist into Ando’s solar plexus, knocking the wind from the doctor. As expected, the doctor dropped the remote and Ryan drew back his hand to catch it in one swift motion. Using his forward momentum, he crushed his knee into Ando’s ribs, pushed him back into the room and slammed the door shut.

  Takeshi watched it all with a bemused expression on his face, as if he couldn’t care less.

  Gunfire from rifles and handguns rattled down the corridors. The battle outside had moved indoors. Yamada had promised a lengthy diversion and he was coming through. Behind the plant were steep hills. The nearest town was miles away, making an attack difficult. A kamikaze mission. The Black Skulls had set their defenses well, digging in and guarding the road and perimeter. What was in here that was so valuable to Offenheim and Yamada? Takeshi?

  The screams and shrieks from the hallway grew in intensity.

  Carbines barked.

  Orders were shouted and the released prisoners howled.

  “Booth. What’s happening?” Cal said from the doorway that led back into the corridor.

  “Ahhh, it’s not good. Soldiers and Siphons everywhere. Suggest a different exit.”

  “Copy that. Keep eyes on.”

  “Wilco.”

  Ryan grimaced and turned to Takeshi Yamada. “Is there another way out of the building?”

  “There’s a small tunnel where the cables run.”

  “That’s how we came in and it’s blocked. Any others?”

  “On the ground floor. There’s an executive exit. In case of a fire.”

  Ryan nodded and gestured to Cal. “I’ll take point.” He nudged his throat mic. “We’re going to try another exit.”

  “Copy that.”

  Cal had her head turned toward him as a blur of reddish pink sprinted past her and skidded to a stop. Ebony. Blood was splashed across her white clothes. She grinned when she saw Ando trapped in the room. She picked up the remote Ryan had left.

  Gaz laughed and turned to Ryan. “Have fun out there. Think I’ll stay with the queen and watch the show.”

  Ando’s mouth opened in a silent scream as Ebony clicked the remote. As Ryan watched, ports opened on the wall behind him. Bright orange flames shot out as Ryan and Cal hustled Takeshi from the lab, away from its tanks of twisted torture. Away from the years of torment in the name of progress and science. In their time with LK3 they had seen the depths of depravity some were capable of. He hoped Ebony would find her peace.

  Thirteen

  Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington

  So much of Lisa’s work relied on her instincts. Whether it was pursuing hunches or connecting dots. Some she learnt as she navigated her way through the corridors of power. But like everyone she owed a lot to her cavemen ancestors.

  Lisa snapped awake. It was 5.01 a.m. The hairs on the back of her neck and on her forearms were standing up, tingling. She strained her ears, listening for any sounds out of place. Nothing. Just the usual sounds of an active base during a crisis. She blinked, letting her eyes adjust. In wasn’t particularly dark in the sleeping quarters; the early morning light was enough to see by. The other bunk remained empty. Nothing moved in the room and everything was in place. She sat up and pulled her Glock from under her pillow, comforted by its familiar feel. She breathed deep and detected a faint scent of smoke. Wood smoke, maybe pine or fir, mixed with a chemical smell.

  Lisa whipped back the covers and peered through the curtains. The trench the Army had dug for the dead Rabids was ablaze. She sighed and dressed in khaki cargo pants and a black hiking top. She belted a holster with a sheathed Ka-Bar knife to her hip. As she was lacing up her boots, she heard light footsteps in the hallway. Moments later, Monica knocked softly.

  “You awake?”

  Lisa opened the door. “Morning.”

  Doctor Monica Johnson’s eyes were red and puffy. “You’ll want to see this,” she said.

  ***

  The lab had a sickly scent of death as Lisa walked in. She took shallow breaths and tried to ignore the unpleasant odor. A white sheet stained with blood covered the specimen they had taken from the highway. Monica had removed his organs and brain and placed them in metal dishes. She pointed to the microscope. “Look in there.”

  Lisa frowned. She could identify blood cells in plasma, but not the little insect-like creatures swimming around.

  “What are those?” she asked.

  “No idea. But I can tell you that I found something similar in the blood sample you gave me.”

  “And?”

  “They’re not a virus or bacteria, and they’re certainly not any pathogen I’ve ever encountered.”

  “So what can they be? You must have a theory?”

  Lisa stepped back from the microscope, her mind whirring through memories she hadn’t accessed in years. It filtered through conferences she had attended, TED Talks on scientific developments – in America and overseas.

  “I’ve spent all my life looking at viruses, microbiology,” said Monica. “This is something out of science fiction. Something I never thought possible in my lifetime.” She picked up a clipboard of notes. “I’ve run every test I know, that I can here. I really need better equipment. An electron microscope, or even better, a scanning probe microscope. Those babies can see on a molecular nano scale.”

  Lisa’s eyes widened. Nano. Was it possible? She had listened to a talk by an Australian team developing nanotechnology to treat degenerative brain disorders. The lady giving the speech had clearly stated that they were years away from trials. But she had shown slides of the most practical shapes the nanites could take. Lisa squinted and looked at the blood sample again. Yes. One of the slides had shown a tick-like shape. Nanotechnology?

  “I took a holiday to Hong Kong, once,” she said “Spent my days sweating my body weight as I trudged around the streets and up Mount Victoria. Fascinating city. Filled with lights and noise. Old and new. Tradition mixed with futuristic gadgets. By the end of the week, my husband and I had grown bored, so we attended a TED Talk. Extremely smart people. One of the talks was on nanotechnology and its uses in the medical field. They showed graphics of the best possible shapes to use. Shapes like that… if only we could see it more clearly.”

  “Huh.” Monica scrunched her eyes together. “I need a coffee. Three coffees. I suppose they could be nanites. I’m definitely going to need better equipment.”

  “Get some sleep. I’ll chat to Munroe; he’ll send a team out to get you what you need. Make a list.”

  “You heading back out there?”

  “With a small group, yes. It’s what I do.”

  “Even at your age?” Monica said, grinning.

  Lisa had always enjoyed Monica’s quips and returned the smile. They hugged.

  “Take care,” Lisa said. “Figure it out and keep me informed. Go through the general only.”

  She left Monica to her notes and her recent discovery of the possible nanites. Was it true? Had someone used nanites to cause all this?

  She didn’t have time to ponder the problem further. She exited the building, acknowledging the two guards. Three soldiers saluted as she took the last step. One had sun-bleached blond hair, buzz-cut on the sides and longer on top. His bright blue eyes held her gaze. He was tall, his muscles taut but not bulging like a bodybuilder’s. More the physique of a rock climber or gymnast. The other two men were shorter and Hispanic. Their dark eyes stared, but not in
a rude way. Like they were assessing her.

  “Staff Sergeant Joe Reid, and corporals Clough and Torres reporting, Major Omstead, ma’am.”

  “On whose orders?”

  “General Munroe’s, ma’am.”

  She looked them over again. Like herself, they were dressed in a mixture of fatigues and civilian clothes. Cargo pants, T-shirts, and jackets.

  “Well, let’s go and get briefed.”

  “This way, ma’am,” Reid said. He brushed a hand through his blond hair then gestured toward a grouping of buildings. Behind them the morning sun crept over the towering presence of Mount Rainier.

  Seagulls squawked in the distance. A lone dog barked. Birds sang. On any other day, the morning would be one to savor.

  Reid led them inside a small classroom-like office space. It had a whiteboard on a stand at one end, and twenty chairs, all recently cleaned. The stench of the industrial cleaner still hung strong in the air.

  Reid, Clough, and Torres took the front three seats while Lisa stood in front of the board. She didn’t pick up the marker. She’d agreed with Munroe to keep the mission off the record. Verbal briefing only.

  “Let’s start with what you know of me.”

  “Ma’am?” came the reply.

  “I realize that this is unconventional, but I’m sure you’re aware there’s some unconventional shit going on. So what do you know about me? Reid?”

  “Nothing, ma’am. Munroe told me to report to you and follow your orders as if he gave them.”

  “I was in the Marines. FORECON. Green operations. Served in the Gulf wars and ’Stan. Since leaving the corps I’ve served as a liaison officer for a private company specializing in rescue and locating kidnap victims. Any questions so far?”

  Three heads shook.

  “Very good. Any of you have recon experience?”

  Reid raised his hand. “Ma’am, we all do. We were long-range surveillance before the pencil heads nipped it in the butt back in seventeen. Now we’re part of the Battlefield Surveillance brigade. Two hundred and first.”

  “Two hundred and first,” Clough and Torres said together.