Almost a half hour later, the mud-caked team cleared the edge of the swamp and stumbled into the ruin. Keith ordered his men to fan out and provide cover for him and for Luna while they examined what was left of the abandoned research complex.
“Why’d they build this place in the middle of a ruin?” Keith asked, sweeping the entrance to the complex with the powerful LED light mounted to his gun barrel.
“Probably so they could use the city’s power grid to link up with Alex’s land feed,” Luna replied, snapping on a hand-held light. “He has ground-based connection conduits to every active Unitech complex in the hemisphere—including the swamp research stations. Running the land lines through existing AI power grids is way easier then building new ones from scratch.”
She shone her light on the grime-covered walls and wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Wow … the swamp sure takes over in a hurry.”
“All the more reason to finish quickly,” Keith muttered. “Where’s this mainframe you were talking about?”
Luna pointed her light at an open doorway just ahead of her, “It should be through here, in the station’s main control center.”
The two of them walked through the dark doorway and cautiously surveyed the deserted room. There were several chairs positioned around a cluster of holographic monitors, a few desks that looked as if they’d been scavenged, and bits and pieces of research notes scattered across the moist floor.
Luna seated herself in a soggy chair and powered up one of the terminals, the dim glow from its polarized screen casting eerie blue shadows over the abandoned control center.
“Found anything yet?” Keith asked after a few minutes had passed.
“Almost. There’s a lot of data to go through in here. Okay, I’ve got it.” She looked up and pointed back to the main hallway. “There’s a cold-storage room down the hall on the left. According to the last log entry, they have several more samples in there. If the cryostasis systems weren’t damaged in the attack, then these should still be viable.”
“And if they’re not?”
She shrugged. “Then we’ll just have to do things the old fashioned way and find more samples ourselves.”
“Okay then, let’s get moving.”
She stood up and retrieved her light from where she’d set it, then led Keith back out into the hallway. They walked down the long corridor and were nearly to the cold storage room when Keith noticed that a section of the hallway’s wall panels had been removed, exposing the knotted power cables beneath.
“Miss McKelly. Look at this.” He shined his light on the exposed wiring.
“It looks as if it’s been shorted out … look at the burn marks on the wall,” Luna replied, kneeling to get a closer look. “Wait a second … this isn’t a power conduit. This is Alex’s land-line cable.”
“What are you implying?” Keith asked, crouching down to join her.
“I don’t really know … I’m no expert, but it looks to me as if someone were trying to splice into the Unitech data stream from here.” She rubbed her hand over the charred remains of the cables, sending a shower of blackened debris to the ground.
“Wait a minute. Are you saying Swampers might have hacked the Unitech mainframe?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow.
Luna shook her head and stood up. “Well, I guess they probably could have. But from the way things look now, I’d say they didn’t meet with much success. That is, unless they were actually trying to fry themselves. It would take a technological wizard to splice into Alex remotely. Whoever did this was an amateur, at best.”
“Or an idiot.”
“Or an idiot,” Luna repeated, shining her light down the hallway. “Okay, our cold storage room is just ahead. Cross your fingers and hope there are still some samples alive in there.”
She led him down the corridor and then turned left. The connecting hallway went on for nearly fifty yards before ending abruptly at a large, reinforced door with the words Cold Storage stenciled across its metallic surface.
Luna shined her light on the door’s mildew-covered keypad. She wiped the blue-green grime off the device and quickly typed in a series of numbers she’d found in the station’s database. There was a click, and the door’s mechanized lock disengaged.
Luna smiled, clipped the flashlight to her belt, and gripped the door’s heavy latch. “Here, help me get it open.”
Keith slung his weapon over his shoulder and joined her. Together they heaved the heavy, two-foot thick door open. Then they stopped and stared in open-mouthed astonishment.
Everything inside the cold storage room was crawling with the life forms they had come to collect. No matter where they looked, their HUD’s registered the protozoa, bathing their faces in bright yellow light.
“We’ve hit the mother lode, ” Luna whispered, fumbling with her sample case.
“I’ll say,” Keith replied quietly. “Why are there so many of them?”
“Check your environmental readouts. This isn’t exactly the coldest cold storage room in the world,” Luna said, kneeling to collect a sample from the floor.
“Someone must have cut the power to the cooling units.,” Keith muttered. He opened a comm channel to the men he’d left outside. “Hey, team, we’ve got something big in here. Come in and give us a hand.”
He unfastened his own sample case and began to fill it.
Agents Patterson, Rush, and Perkins arrived a few minutes later and Luna put them to work collecting the microbes swarming around the room.
This is it, she thought happily, securing the last of her collection vials into her sample case. Just a few more months and I’ll have a viable cure!
“Okay, everyone,” she said, addressing the team. “Fill up every vial in your field kits, and then we can get out of here—”
“Away team! Away team, come in!” Terence’s voice exploded in her helmet speakers causing her to jump.
“What is it, Fox?” Keith replied, his voice suddenly tense.
“We’ve got something coming our way … make that a whole bunch of something.”
“Is it the storm?”
“Negative! It’s the Swampers! You’d better get out of there fast!”
“Roger that. Stand by for immediate evac! Over!”
Luna stared at the agents in confusion.
“What—” she started to say, but she was quickly cut off by Keith’s commanding voice.
“Luna, pick up your things. We’re getting out of here. Now!”
Chapter 9
Luna scrambled to comply, gathering up her equipment and fastening it to her suit’s magnetic clasps as quickly as she could before being ushered into the hallway.
They rushed through the halls in silence, stopping to regroup only when they reached the main entrance. Keith ordered Agent Patterson to take point, and the group moved outside, sprinting across the open street in a mad dash for the gutted building on the far side.
Several red dots danced on Luna’s heads-up display, and she felt her racing heart begin to pound more furiously. She’d been around technology long enough to recognize a motion detector when she saw one.
“I’ve got movement!” Patterson yelled just as a staccato of gunfire erupted from one of the darkened buildings along their path.
“Look sharp!” Keith shouted, returning fire. “Box formation, now! Protect Miss McKelly!”
The four men took up flanking positions around her and combed the fog-bound ruins, searching every window and open doorway in a desperate attempt to locate their unseen assailants.
In all the excitement Luna had completely forgotten the 9mm fastened to her hip. With a trembling hand she reached down and gripped the small weapon. Did she really have to use it? Could she use it?
She had never so much as fired a gun before, much less used one on another person. She swallowed hard and yanked the pistol from its holster, cautiously eyeing the weapon. There was no time to think. Though her heart dreaded what she may have to do, she knew that given the c
hoice between dying in the swamp along with her research and living to help millions of people, she would rather choose the latter.
Dear God, what am I doing? she thought, switching the safety off, desperately hoping that she wouldn’t actually hit anything.
Her helmet’s motion tracker beeped, and she caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure emerging from the mist. She held her breath, feeling the adrenaline coursing through her bloodstream. She raised her weapon. Her finger curled around the trigger, and she squeezed, sending several copper-jacketed rounds racing toward the figure.
Her bullets missed their mark—but they served their purpose: the Swamper quickly withdrew in search of an easier target.
Luna tightened her death grip on the weapon, trying to steady her shaking limbs. She’d actually shot at another human being! The thought that she could have killed someone—even someone who was trying to kill her—filled her with shame.
The agents continued to return fire, and after what Luna thought had to be the longest sixty seconds in history, the Swampers fell back into the shadows.
“Come on, miss!” Agent Patterson shouted, grabbing her arm. “We need to fall back!”
Luna didn’t argue. She’d had just about as much of the war zone as she could take. Wordlessly she hurried after Patterson while the rest of the team took up covering positions at her back and sides. They sprinted across the short distance to the nearest ruin and ducked inside.
“What was all that Terence said about incoming targets? These guys have us surrounded!” Agent Rush said between gasps.
“How’d they get the drop on us?” Perkins replied, poking his head around the corner to survey the deserted street. “It’s like they’re invisible. Motion trackers didn’t pick anything up until they were on top of us.”
“One thing’s for sure, they’ve gotten a lot better since the last time,” Patterson said, shouldering his weapon. “Hey, Keith, where’s Terence? Isn’t he supposed to be getting us out of here?”
“Just sit tight, Patterson. He’ll be here.” Keith replied, slamming another magazine into his weapon’s receiver.
“Well, it had better be soon. I doubt these Swampers will be fooling around much longer,” Patterson replied, turning to Luna who was kneeling beside the building’s thick, concrete wall.
“You all right, miss?” The tall agent knelt beside her.
Luna glanced up at him and nodded, trying to calm her shaking body.
“Yeah … I’m all right.”
“You sure?” he replied, placing an armored hand on her shoulder, “you look pretty shook up.”
That’s because I am, Luna thought, fighting back sobs.
“No, really. I’m okay… ” she said, looking around at the men. She’d heard the tension in their voices, and she knew that their present situation was not good.
She cleared her throat. “Do you think we’ll be getting out of here?”
“Of course we will,” he replied, patting her on the shoulder. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Miss McKelly. We’ll get you out of here in one piece, even if it’s the last thing we do.”
That’s what I was worried about, she thought, chewing her lip nervously. I didn’t ask if I would be getting out of here—I asked if we would.
“Terence, where are you?” Keith shouted through the team comm, the sound of his voice causing Luna to wince.
“I’m in the air, away team. Closing on your position,” Fox replied. “I’ll try to set down on the edge of the city about a block away from your current position. ETA … any minute now. Get yourselves to the extraction point ASAP! Fox out!”
“All right, people!” Keith shouted. “Double time it on my mark! Luna, get up. We’re moving out!”
She surged to her feet, every muscle in her small body wound tight in anticipation. Keith and the other agents readied their weapons and took up positions around Luna. A moment later they were racing through the open street, weaving their way toward the sound of the V-244’s roaring engines.
There was a burst of automatic gunfire to their right, and Luna stumbled, crying out in pain as she felt the projectiles impact on her armor. She glanced down at the dented metal plates attached to her pressure suit, fully expecting to see blood pouring onto the ground as she ran. Much to her relief, it seemed Agent Rosa had been right about the suit: it really was bulletproof.
They darted around the crumbling ruins and fought their way toward the waiting Stratocruiser, the agents continuing to exchange fire with the nearly invisible Swampers as they reached the chopper’s loading ramp.
Luna scrambled into the aircraft first and ran to her seat, followed by the agents, who paused momentarily to return one last departing salvo.
“Terence, get going!” Keith shouted, leaping into the aircraft. “We’ve got to get out of here!”
“Roger that, Keith.” Agent Fox replied, shakily. “Strap in—this could get bumpy!”
Luna fumbled with her seatbelt, frantically trying to secure the straps as the massive aircraft began to rumble into the air. The rear door was still open, and she could feel the suction from the passing air current pulling at her. Instinctively, she braced her feet against the floor to keep herself in the seat while she tugged furiously on her shoulder straps. They were stuck!
“Keith!” she called, “I can’t get my seatbelt on!”
“Terence, close the hatch! I need to help Miss McKelly!” Keith shouted.
“Roger! Closing door.” The hatch began to ease shut, and Keith unstrapped himself, slowly making his way to Luna. He’d almost reached her when the chopper lurched violently, throwing him to the floor. A bright fireball erupted outside the Stratocruiser’s window, sending jagged chunks of shrapnel crashing into the fuselage.
“Holy—” Terence muttered under his breath. “We’re hit! Hang on everyone!”
Keith pulled himself into the nearest chair and strapped himself down.
“Hang on, Luna!” he shouted frantically.
What do you think I’m doing? Her mind screamed. Just then a massive explosion shook the aircraft, sending it into a violent dive as the entire tail section—ramp and all—was torn away in a cloud of flame and pulverized metal.
Luna screamed, feeling herself being ripped from her seat by the powerful suction. Frantically she fought to catch hold of something—anything—as her body tumbled through the stricken aircraft toward the gaping hole and the darkness beyond.
There! One of the storage compartments had been torn open in the blast, offering her a purchase in the plummeting aircraft.
She desperately reached out and wrapped her hands around the twisted metal, holding on with all her strength.
The chopper’s deadly decent began to slow as Terence fought to regain control of the crippled aircraft, and she could see Keith crawling toward her.
“Luna! Hold on!” he shouted. “Terence, bring the ship down! I repeat, bring the ship down! She’s being blown out!”
“What? Keith, I can hardly control this thing!”
“Just do it!”
Luna could feel her fingers slipping, and she began to sob with terror. “I’m slipping! I’m slipping!” She screamed, kicking frantically at the air. “Oh God, oh God! Please! Someone help me!”
“Don’t move!” Keith shouted. “I’m almost there, Luna. Don’t move!”
Her left hand slipped free, putting all the strain on her right arm. She heard pop, and her body twisted violently as her shoulder dislocated, ripping the narrow handhold from her grasp as her body whipped around in the rushing wind like a kite in a storm.
She screamed in terror and pain and desperately flailed her arms and legs in a futile attempt to slow her fall as she watched the smoking Stratocruiser growing smaller and smaller above her.
A fraction of a second later, her body connected with the swamp. The force of the impact knocked her unconscious before she had completed her first skip across the foamy, green waters. She bounced two more times before coming to rest in the sha
llow murk near shore.
Chapter 10
“She fell! I repeat: she fell!” Keith shouted through the comm, watching in stunned horror as Luna’s body slammed into the water below.
“Oh crap! Did she make it?” Agent Fox yelled.
“I can’t be sure. What was our altitude?”
“When she fell? Like, maybe ninety feet—a hundred tops!” Terence shouted back “I really don’t know! I’ve got a lot on my mind right now! Like keeping this bird in the air so we don’t all die!”
So she could have survived, Keith thought, bracing himself.
“Terence, can we make it back to the city?”
“No way, Keith—we’re hit too bad! I’ll try to get us as close to New Denver as I can, but we’ll probably end up ditching long before then.”
“All right,” Keith said, crawling away from the gaping hole where their V-244’s rear hatch had been. “Ditch us in the first open place you find. We’re going back for Miss McKelly.”
“What? Are you crazy? That place is crawling with Swampers! And what if she didn’t make it? I don’t know about you, but I’d hate to go through all the trouble of trudging through hostile swamplands just to bring back a corpse!”
“She’s our objective, Fox!” Keith said, returning to his seat. “And Agency protocol dictates that we do everything in our power to keep that objective from falling into enemy hands. Now take us down! We’re not going to leave her out here!”
“Yes, sir. Understood,” Terence replied through clenched teeth. “I’m switching to AI assist.”
Keith cinched his harness and settled into his chair, his adrenaline surging as the Stratocruiser began to lose altitude. He gripped his chair’s armrests firmly, forcing himself to remain calm. He knew he would need a level head in order to salvage what was left of his mission.
“Brace yourselves! We’re coming in hot!” Terence shouted.
The Stratocruiser dipped and rocked, banking in an attempt to slow its descent, before slamming into the ground. The stricken aircraft bounced, sheering off its starboard engine strut on a tree before flipping nose over tail and skidding to a stop several hundred yards from its initial point of impact.
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