William leaned forward in his seat. The dome of ISAF came through the rain. It was strikingly lit with several rings of red light, indicating the current base sequence. Rain seemed to amplify this light in the night sky. Jake turned onto a descending road ramp that dipped below ground. An unmanned security booth lay in their path, watching over the four-lane entrance of a parking garage that stretched under the dome. Jake stopped the cars hood just forward of the booth. A laser scanned a vertical barcode sticker stuck to the cars back left window, lowering three cylindrical crash barriers in front of them.
Dozens and dozens of vehicles filled the garage, some patrol cars, others armored personnel carriers, many SUV’s with exterior roll bars and menacing grill guards. Jake drove to a section of garage that held ISAF’s collection of vans. He skidded to a stop in front of one, lowered his window and erupted out of the car. William moved over to the drivers seat. Nancy replaced William in the front passenger seat. Jake shut the door and leaned down into the open window.
“See you guys soon,” he said.
“Be careful,” Nancy winced.
Jake put his big hand on William’s chest and shoved him back into his seat, holding him there. He blew a kiss to Nancy with his other hand. Nancy tenderly smiled.
“Sorry Captain, didn’t want that landing on you,” Jake said, patting William’s chest.
William just nodded awkwardly. Jake started to jog away.
“Hey, Jake!” called William.
Jake stopped between two vans. “Yeah?”
“Tell Rescue Officer Miller when you find her to bring Shampoo.”
“Why the hell do we need shampoo?”
CHAPTER 70: Once A Soldier Always A Soldier
“John.”
“Commander. Where are you? Did you see the attack? And the message?”
“I did Colonel. I’m nearing the mainland. Were you able to get out?”
“Yes. We left minutes before the message went out. St. Lawrence has been sealed by the US Navy. So far they can’t ID any would be attackers or immediate threats that would prove Terra Nova’s claim.”
“Believe the claim. They have the means to do what they say.”
John paused for a long while. “Ma’am…”
“Yes, John?”
“Did you know this was going to happen? Is that why you made us leave?”
“The only thing that matters now is that we get home; do you hear me, Colonel? We must get home.”
“Then why are you going to Nome ma’am? Why not just come with us or why don’t we go with you? What are you not telling me?”
“War has started John,” Hammond said remorsefully, “and I can’t lose anymore soldiers. I just can’t.”
“But we aren’t solider ma’am.”
“We’ll always be soldiers, John. Always.”
Hammond hung up the call. From her jacket pocket she took out a bottle of pills. She took out two and swallowed them. They tasted awful but she had gotten used to them. She went to grab for her glass tag but she remembered she wasn’t wearing it. John didn’t know it yet but he had it, tucked inside the sealed envelope he was carrying upon her orders. No one could track her without them.
She found the time on the television built into the seat headrest in front of her. It was 7:18 p.m.; 11:18 p.m. back at base.
“Less than twenty hours to go,” she sighed to herself in the dark plane cabin.
CHAPTER 71: Everything is Down
William pressed the accelerator after the barriers lowered into the ground up the entry ramp of the garage. He slowed back down as he reached the main road, turning in the direction he was told by the cars GPS.
“Get that next distraction going again, Lewis,” he said.
“Already done, Captain.”
...
Hernandez was reviewing digital blueprints of the base hospital with a number of guardsmen on the hood of a patrol car outside the evacuating building when he heard a call come out over the cars radio.
“ISAF control room to Chief Hernandez, do you copy? ISAF control room to Chief Hernandez.”
Hernandez swung into the cars passenger seat and answered the call. “This is Hernandez, go ahead control room.”
“Sir, we got another biohazard alarm going off. Anthrax again. This time in Umoja Tower.”
“Where exactly in the tower?”
“Seventh floor. Ten guardsmen units have been dispatched and two containment teams.”
“Begin evacuating the entire building. I’ll be over there in fifteen minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Have the guardsmen sent to obtain Captain Emerson called in yet?”
“No sir, but their patrol car did return to the garage briefly. It left seven minutes later. We have its ID code on file passing in and out of the gate.”
“When was this?”
“Less than two minutes ago, sir.”
Hernandez squeezed the radio microphone so hard he cracked its plastic casing. He began biting his fingernails. “ID the drivers of that vehicle now! Send a unit to those guardsmen’s last identified location, immediately!”
“A unit, sir? Now with these two alarms we’re kind of tight on - ”
“That’s an order Guardsman! And shutdown all base communications systems! I want this place silenced!”
“All communications, sir? That’s not protocol - ”
“Do it!”
...
“I think it’s working, sir,” Nancy announced. “I haven’t seen an ISAF patrol for a while now.”
“Yeah, me neither. We’re almost to the location Jake told us to go to.”
William turned onto a narrow two-lane access road plunging into the enormous field of shipping containers in the Port Section. No one was around as most of the Port Sections operations, especially container handling, were highly automated. The rows and rows of white and blue containers, stacked two, three, sometime four units high, seemed to stretch on forever. Most of the area wasn’t lit either. Robots and computers didn’t need visible light; instead most of the area was bathed in infrared emanating from inconspicuous poles every few hundred feet for security cameras.
“Uh-oh,” said Nancy.
“What?” William asked, anxiously.
“Hernandez… I think he is on to us with this whole distraction thing.”
“Why?”
“All communications are down.”
“Maybe it’s a technical glitch or something?”
“No. I should have been more specific with my words. Comms systems aren’t down sir they are off. Radio, internet, cell service. Someone shut them off. Base Tranquility has gone dark.”
...
“Colonel Morrison,” called a subgroup general from the front of the plane. “Colonel Morrison.”
John stuck his head into the center isle and saw the subgroup general waving him down by the cockpit. The supersonic jet they were on wasn’t very large, accommodating thirty passengers at a time. All Base Tranquility brass and their aids were on it, meaning all subgroup generals, several colonels like John, and the absent Hammond. Each UNIRO base had one of these SAAC vehicles for quick administrative travel at speeds nearing Mach 2. Its design made almost no obnoxious sonic booms and traveled at just over 45,000 feet. John hated it.
“General,” said John, standing at attention.
“Colonel. At ease,” said the subgroup general standing next to the open cockpit door. “Colonel, when was the last time you were in contact with Base Tranquility?”
“Umm, about an hour ago maybe. It was a spotty connection though. My call went dead almost immediately.”
“Who was it with?” asked another subgroup general.
“Captain William Emerson, sir.”
“What did he say to you?”
“Honestly, I don’t know sirs. The connection was so bad I really couldn’t hear anything. I’m sorry.”
“All nine UNIRO bases have entered Sequence Red due to the dam attack,” informe
d a colonel from Subgroup 4. “However, Base Tranquility went on a communications blackout for some reason several minutes ago. We don’t know why. No one can reach them. Chief Hernandez issued the blackout.”
“Is that protocol?” asked John, confused.
“No. No such protocol for a full communications blackout exists,” said the colonel. “It’s as if the systems have literally been turned off.”
“He must have good reason, sirs,” ensured John optimistically.
“Well, once we rendezvous with Base Commander Hammond in Anchorage we will try and find more answers,” said the subgroup general that had originally called John over.
“Speaking of the commander,” said the other subgroup general, “did she tell anyone why she ran off to Nome. That woman can be so damn cryptic sometimes. Did she tell you anything Colonel Morrison before she left?”
John turned his head to avoid eye contact with the subgroup general. John was terrible at lying. He looked outside at the clouds racing by 10,000 feet below and at the lights of civilization 35,000 feet below that. He really hated flying.
CHAPTER 72: One Hell of A Night
Hernandez looked up at Umoja Tower from the within the plaza before it, warning lights and alarms going off all around him. Anthrax was now being reported on five different floors. Eighty-two percent of the building had been evacuated. The base command center below the tower had been sealed and its own air supply turned on so that the base could continue operations. Guardsmen, who were ushering people away from the building, surrounded him. Not many people had been in the building anyways being it was so late when the lockdown had been initiated. The time was now 12:09 a.m., May 7, 2027.
“Chief Hernandez!” shouted a guardsman, running over to him. She was holding a radio.
“Yes, Guardsman?” Hernandez said.
“Radio sir,” she said, holding it up to him. “It’s HQ.”
Hernandez grabbed the radio. “This is Hernandez, go ahead.”
“Chief, we found the guardsmen you sent to find Captain Emerson. They were ugh… They were found in Rescue Officer Lewis’s quarters; zip tied to the room’s beds. Their uniforms and all their gear had been taken. The individuals that drove the stolen patrol car into our garage were identified as Guardsman Sheroff, Captain Emerson, and Rescue Officer Lewis.”
Hernandez began trembling slightly, indignation spreading to every cell in his body. He looked up at Umoja Tower. He knew then the alarms were fake.
“Sir?” the guardsman in the control said into the unanswered radio.
“Listen to me,” shivered Hernandez, “divert everyone to finding Captain Emerson and his friends! Everyone! Now!”
“But sir, what about the biohazard alar - ”
“Don’t you see, you idiot?! Captain Emerson is the one setting these damn alarms off! He’s trying to distract us from himself. There is no anthrax!”
Hernandez grabbed the attention of the nearest guardsman to him and said, “Pack it up, we’re leaving, now!” Then he turned his rage back into the radio. “Find him, with whatever it takes, with whoever it takes. Him and all those associated with him are to be considered armed and dangerous. They are Terra Novan collaborators assisting Base Commander Hammond and Colonel John Morrison. I want them found before Hammond’s arrival. You have authorization to shoot to kill. All of them.”
...
What time you got Lewis?” asked William.
“Mmm,” Nancy looked at her new Rolex, courtesy of the guardsman that used to wear her uniform. “It’s almost one in the morning.”
William waited with his arms crossed, sitting on the hood of the car next to Nancy. The location Jake had wanted them to go to turned out to be a large underground concrete holding tank on the scale of a small cathedral. Their car sat idle amongst cylindrical columns forty feet high and fifteen feet in diameter that supported the still under construction tank that was eventually going to hold seawater while it waited to be desalinated into drinking water. William and Nancy were at one end of the tank; the other end was at least three football fields away. Scaffoldings still surrounded many of the columns and no security cameras had been installed yet. Except for their echoes, they were completely alone.
“You know, Captain,” said Nancy quietly, “I thought this place would be better.”
William looked over at her finishing a long yawn. “What do you mean?”
“Somehow I thought in here, in UNIRO I mean, I thought we would be above the stupid stuff that goes on out there in the world. I thought we’d be safe here; that things would be different. I guess that was a little naïve of me to think, huh?”
William shook his head. “It’s not naïve to believe people can be good, Rescue Officer. It’s what should be done and it should be done more often. If you live your whole life in this world only seeing the darkness you’ll never believe there is any light, even if it’s staring you straight in the face. For a time,” sighed William, “that’s what happen to me.”
William reached out his arm and laid his hand on Nancy’s shoulder. “Don’t lose faith in us yet. Once someone has, it’s very hard to get it back. Trust me.”
A vehicle horn suddenly started echoing through the great concrete cavern. Nancy and William looked in the direction the honking was coming from. A white van came around a column in front of them, splashing through puddles. It was Jake.
Simba stuck his head out the front passenger window and yelled, “Yo Booooss!”
Jake pulled the van around right up to in front of the car. Simba opened his door looking ready to take on the world. Jake ran around the front of the van and opened up the vans sliding door to let the team out. Shampoo jumped out with Amanda first. She ran over to William and jumped up to greet him wagging her tale, then she did the same to Nancy.
“Captain!” greeted Vinny. “What the hell is going on out there? Dams blowing up, spooky cyber messages, lockdowns, and now this nine foot three guy over here,” Vinny pointed to Jake, “drags me outta bed saying we have to save the world or something. This is one hell of a night, eh?”
“Gather around everyone, please,” shouted William. “Gather around!”
Everyone made a semicircle around the patrol cars hood. Nancy moved to be with the circling team so William could be alone at the center.
“Wha-Whats going on, Captain?” asked Seong innocently. “The world a-a-above is falling apart. I’m a little sc-scared, sir.”
“Is there an attack on the base coming, Captain?” asked DJ.
William looked over at Vega. She had her arms crossed. Just by looking at her, William knew she understood exactly why they were here and what had to be done. She had been a solider, just as he had. She knew they had to fight.
William took a deep breath as he rubbed his chin. He noticed his needed a shave, as he seemed to feel the last seventy-two hours drip off his face. He realized how exhausted he was but at the same time felt ready to stay awake for another seventy-two hours.
“I asked Guardsman Sheroff here to get you all because I need your help. But, before I continue I need you to know that if you choose to help me, you will be putting yourself in more danger than any UNIRO mission you will ever face. You will be arrested if you are caught helping me at the least, killed at he most. If you want to walk away, now is your chance. This request for help is not an order by any means, it is just what it is, a plea.”
“Is it Hammond, sir?” asked Sergey, cutting to the point.
“No Mamedov. It’s Hernandez,” replied William. “Chief Hernandez is a Terra Novan. I’m almost positive.”
“Almost?” questioned Abeo.
“Yes. I need two forms of conformation to be sure and I need to be next to him to do so.”
Abeo began stepping away from the circle, slowly shaking his head. “I won’t do this,” he said. “This is not our battle to fight Captain Emerson. I have a family back home, waiting for me. I will not see them again in a body bag with them asking why I took up arms in a fight that
wasn’t mine. You trusted Hernandez. You were his friend. You should have seen this a long time ago.”
“Lawal,” Amanda gasped. “This is not Captain Emerson’s fault.”
“Maybe not, but it will be if I die senselessly today. I’m sorry; I will not partake in this. I will not become one of his war stories. I will not suffer the fate he gave to those he previously commanded.”
William knelt his head in aching guilt.
“Lawal!” yelled Amanda.
But Abeo had already turned around and was walking away behind the van, towards the service entrance of the tank that they had all used to get inside of it. His departure didn’t help anyone in the circle feel better about the situation.
William noticed headlights bouncing around at the end of the tank closest to them just over the hood of the van. Someone was coming down the service entrance. William lifted himself off the hood. His team turned around to see what he was looking at. Abeo saw the headlights and stopped. He had walked about forty feet past the van.
“Captain,” said Amanda with a chill in her voice, still next to him, “who is coming?”
Shampoo started barking. The bouncing white headlights took on a red and blue glow.
“Captain!” Jake shouted. “We have to move now! It’s ISAF!”
CHAPTER 73: Run
Three ISAF patrol cars skidded around a far column, turning on their sirens. The squalling sound and flashing high pitches were deafening inside the tank. One car took the lead in front of the other two. All of them were accelerating. They were about 200 feet away and closing. A guardsman sitting in the lead cars passenger seat rolled down his window and leaned out of it. He drew his P90. A blue laser at the tip of the gun locked onto Abeo.
“No! Lawal!” screamed William. “Run!”
Abeo frantically began running back to the van. The guardsman lined up his laser onto Abeo’s back.
“Everyone down!” shouted Jake; physically grabbing everyone he could around him, pushing them down behind the van.
The End of the Beginning Page 35