The Pulse Series (Book 1): Pulse

by Laidlaw, Steven

  "You don't have to come if you don't want to."

  Her eyes hardened. She took a step and jumped up to grab me around the wrist. I locked on to her wrist and helped her climb up on the awning. When she got the the top she pressed herself flat to the wall. Her breathing fast.

  "Are you okay?"

  "Shut up." She looked at me with a wince. "Sorry, just… don't talk okay? Let's get this over with."

  I looked up to the base of the next window. It was a simple climb from here on out, but I was an experienced climber and Sarah wasn't. I peeked through each window before pulling myself up. It would suck to come face to face with a random staff member halfway up the building. The halls within the mansion appeared empty, so we kept climbing. Every now and then I would glance down at Sarah to make sure she was alright. Her breathing was heavy, and her face coated with sweat, but she was doing well.

  We were one floor away from the roof, and I was about to pull myself up when something gave me pause. Each window before had been latched from the inside, but the one I was standing in front of now appeared to be unlocked. I could see the latch unhinged through the glass.

  A grin split my face as I realized we wouldn't have to go through the trouble of getting down through the roof. It raised the risk of running into someone a little, but decreased the danger of falling by a lot more. I looked down at Sarah and helped her up to the ledge I was standing on.

  "Let's go in here."

  She looked in through the window and nodded, and the two of us pushed against the window. It opened without a sound and we stepped off the ledge and into the dark building.

  I made my way into the black with Sarah on my heels. After a few seconds my eyes adjusted enough to give the hallway less of a sense of doom. We made our way along the hall on our tiptoes being careful to make as little sound as possible. I had no idea what was beyond any of the doors we were walking passed. Knowing my luck they'd be sleeping quarters packed with people. As we came up to a corner I motioned for Sarah to stop.

  I stepped forward and peeked around the corner. Everything looked clear. I turned back to Sarah to let her know we were good to go when a door behind her opened. Yellow light spilled out onto the hallway. My instincts kicked in and I grabbed Sarah's hand. In an instant I was pulling her with me around the corner and pressing the two of us up against the wall. I heard a cough followed by footsteps. They were coming toward us.

  I pointed to the door next to Sarah who turned and opened it with a little sound as she could. I slipped in after her and, to my relief, found us located inside a broom closet. I pulled the door shut behind us and held the handle down tight. I didn't want the click of the lock to give us away. I listened hard as the footsteps crossed in front of the door I was holding.

  From behind me came a long creak.

  I spun my head to stare at Sarah who was looking at her back leg in mortification. She had frozen in an awkward position as she didn't dare to take the pressure off her foot. It was at that moment I noticed the footsteps had stopped.

  "Is someone there?"

  I winced at the sound of the voice from outside the door. It was female. I couldn't be sure where she was, but it sure as hell sounded like she was right in front of us.

  "If you jump out and scare me again, Bill, I'm going to Taser you."

  I felt the handle that was still gripped in my hand shudder. With a grimace I leaned back as hard as I could, putting all my might into keeping the door closed. I felt a few light tugs on the door from the other side, but at once the pressure was gone. I could hear footsteps walking away.

  "Stupid house giving an old lady a fright."

  When the sound of footsteps receded I gave a sigh of relief and let go of the handle. The deafening click of the door mechanism made my heart jump into my throat.

  I turned to stare at Sarah who still hadn't moved. We stayed that way for a full minute before I dared take another breath. Sarah took the weight off her leg, which sent another creak through the cupboard.

  Sarah looked up at me. "I'm so sorry."

  I shook my head. "It's not your fault."

  "That was some quick thinking getting around the corner and into this cupboard."

  I felt my cheeks warm. "It was nothing. Instinct I guess."

  "Well keep it up."

  "I'll try, but to be honest I had no idea what was behind that door. Could have been the General's quarters for all I knew."

  I opened the door and the two of us continued down the hallway. We made it to the far end on the east side and looked out the window to the inner courtyard. It was empty, but for some reason the outside lights were still on.

  I turned to Sarah. "Why the hell are they on now?"

  She frowned. "I don't know, but climbing down that way is out now. We're going to have to take the stairs."

  "Won't there be security patrols in the building?"

  Sarah winced but gave me a look that said we didn't have any other choice. "I guess we'll see?"

  I sighed. All that planning and it had turned sour not ten minutes into the mission. This is why I liked doing things on the fly. I gave Sarah a nod and the two of us turned back down the hall.

  Using the servant's stairwell we made our way down to the second floor. I was about to open the door when I heard voices on the other side. The thick accent was distinguishable right away as Doctor Vorboyov. I felt my mouth press into a line as I heard him talk.

  "Right this way, right this way."

  "This had better not be another false alarm, Bogdon."

  I recognized that voice too. It was General Walker. What were the two of them doing up this late? I looked to Sarah, but she just frowned and shrugged. I pressed my ear closer to the door.

  "Not this time, Harrison. You'll see. You'll be impressed I think."

  The general responded, but they were too far down the hall to hear anything else. I put my hand on the door handle, but Sarah grabbed my arm.

  "Are you sure we should be doing this? With them up and about?"

  I shrugged. "We came this far already. It seems like a waste to not go further now."

  I pushed open the door a crack to find the hallway empty. I led the way through and down the hall in the direction of the library. Sarah was close on my heels. We had gone over the plans for this floor so many times that I had every twist and turn memorized. I cursed myself for not doing the same with the other floors. I guess we weren't as prepared as I thought. When we reached the end of a long thin hall we can out into a small foyer area. In front of us were two large wooden doors.

  I grabbed Sarah's shoulder and whispered into her ear. "We're here."

  THIRTY

  "This might be loud," Sarah said.

  I nodded and put one hand on the handle, the other on the door itself. With a twist and a push I opened the door as fast as I could with the most deafening creak of hinges I had ever heard. Sarah slipped in and I rushed in behind her, closing the door with another loud creak. We rushed forward toward the set of open stairs leading up to the second level of the library. We ducked underneath them and hid behind a crawl space as planned. After ten minutes of silence we stepped out into the room. I felt a giddiness rush up through me all at once, and had to slap my hands over my mouth to prevent the bubble of laughter from popping out.

  Sarah grinned at me. "Yep. We did it."

  I got myself under control and nodded, before turning to look up the stairs. There was no entry to the library on the third floor, but I could see the light spilling in from a window. Our initial plan was to cross across the roof of the building, and then back down the other side. Our entry point was to be that window. I stepped up to it and looked out over the courtyard within the mansion. It was still lit up like daylight, but there was no-one as far as the eye could see. I turned with my back to the window and looked for Sarah. She was standing by a set of filing cabinets and rifling through the contents.

  "Here," Sarah said, lifting out one of the index cards. "According to this the
books you're looking for should be on the second floor. Check the third row of stacks back. Somewhere around that area."

  I smirked at her. "You can't be any more specific than that?"

  "Register number 558.53 though to 569.40 to be precise. Would you like anything else, dearie?"

  I scowled at the innocent look on her face. "That will be all. Thanks, ma'am."

  I turned to find the books I wanted before she could swat me and made my way up the stairs. Following her directions brought me to a section of books that looked much like the others. I started browsing through the titles, found the books I was looking for, and pulled off my backpack to start to fill it. I got halfway through the shelf before I realized that I wouldn't be able to carry that many. Also the gap in the shelf was a little conspicuous. I put them back and cherry picked the ones that sounded best. Once I had what I needed I made my way back down the stairs, but Sarah wasn't where I had last seen her.

  I whispered as loud as I could. "Sarah?"

  "In here," came her voice from behind one of the stacks. When I walked around them I saw that there was a doorway that led into a smaller room. I stepped in and found Sarah on the ground next to an open drawer of a filing cabinet. The room was filled with them. She was reading what looked like a stack of papers she had pulled out of one of the files.

  "What's this?"

  Sarah looked up at me and grinned, her eyes alight with excitement. "Field reports."

  My mouth dropped open. "But… wouldn't they keep those in a computer database somewhere?"

  "I guess they wanted hard copies too."

  I dropped my backpack and rushed over to the drawers. Sarah pointed to one at the far end labeled 'Infiltration'. I grinned at her and made my way over to the cabinet. The first document drawer I pulled open had a label at the beginning: '2054 MISSION TRANSCRIPTS'. These were actual missions taken out by the Pulsers, and only a few years ago at that! I did a quick check of the adjacent cabinets.

  "Four drawers of missions in one year alone. This is amazing!"

  Sarah grinned. "Thought you might like it."

  I jumped back to the first drawer with the beginning of the year and pulled out a pile of the folders. I crawled back to the wall and lifted the first transcript. The mission objectives were printed across the top.

  Prismane, Quadratic Acid, and Limare.

  I smiled at the names. These must be the chemicals that we needed in the production of medicine. This is what I was after. This is what I needed to become who I wanted to be. Knowing that I would be helping people made me happier than I had ever been. The place I was at when I destroyed that robot felt far away indeed.

  I skimmed through the rest of the form. There were plans of the building, suggested tactics, guard and employee locations, and telescopic photographs of the location. When I got to the field reports of the agents involved in the mission I started reading in full.

  Lieutenant Marshall

  Mission 44203

  2054-07-07

  We infiltrated the building on the east side doorway at 0220 hours. Two guards encountered. No alarm was raised at this stage. We made our way through the building to objective one. Another guard and two lab personnel were taken care of on the way. In the process Private Joffrey was injured by a chemical spill. We used the new pain reliever (full report of field-tested meds attached to this report) and he was carried out of the building by Private Jefferson. The rest of us continued on our mission.

  The three scientists in the supply room offered little resistance. We managed to secure the Prismane and the Quadratic acid, which was filled into the packs of Private's Michaels and Kobb. They made their way back out of the mission with Carey and Mullen. That left Private Jenn, Mitchell, Carey, and myself to continue with phase two of the mission.

  I frowned as I paused from my reading. Phase two?

  Our way was blocked at by seven guards. Need to look into the intel to see if we missed a silent alarm of some sort. Private Jenn took a bullet to the chest in the process of taking them down. We were able to get her to a stable condition. Care and Mitchell placed her onto a makeshift stretcher and escorted her out. I was left to finish the mission.

  Limare was on site. I had to use my Pulse to avoid weapons fire from him (full Pulse field report attached to this report). I completed my mission and, after confirming with DNA, made my way back to the rendezvous point. All team members accounted for. No friendly fatalities.

  Total kill count: Ten guards, five employees, and primary target Limare.

  Mission Status: Successful.

  I put the piece of paper as my heart thumped in my chest. They were all killed? My hands shook as I considered what had happened. Before I got too ahead of myself, I wanted to be sure. These people may have been monsters. I lifted the paper and went back to the start of the mission objectives. I skimmed through until I got to Limare.

  Priority Target: Jason Limare.

  Background: Untrained in combat. Civilian contractor in charge of several laboratories in the mid-west.

  I frowned. That didn't give me much more information. It rubbed me the wrong way that he was a civilian within the country, but that didn't make him a saint. I dropped the paper to the floor and was about to pick up the next, when something caught my eye. The back page had more writing that I had missed.

  Mission Result: Limare removed from business, and our own scientists set up for the manufacture of Brain Operational eXperience (BOX) and Medicinal materials. The civilian trail that led us to Limare has been cleaned. There is no evidence of his lab ever existing. Our hold over the manufacture of medicinal supplies within country is maintained.

  I had to put the paper down I was shaking so hard. That was the reason for killing all those people? To make sure that the military had a hold over the medicine? They even 'cleaned' the trail. I shuddered as I thought about all the people who must have died to keep this information secret. I felt like I wanted to be sick. We weren't helping people. We were just trying to control people. The people in freedom city were right.

  Sarah touched my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

  When I looked up at her I had tears streaming down my face. I just shook my head and handed her the paper.

  As she read I picked up another and gave it a quick read. This one wasn't about an infiltration, but was about a protest that was being planned in the Miami area against the military and their involvement on US soil after the Washington incident. The military had caught wind of a section of people there wanting to section off Florida from the rest of the US. They had wanted to govern themselves without military interference.

  It was a slaughter. Two teams of Pulsers infiltrated the network and traced it through to the core. One hundred and seventy eight civilians were killed in total. People who just wanted the right to look after themselves. Mission successful.

  I looked up at Sarah who was sitting with her hand on her mouth reading the paper. She looked up at me. "This is…"

  I was about to show her the next piece of paper when I heard something that sent my blood cold. There were two people talking inside the library.

  THIRTY-ONE

  We stuffed the papers back into their drawers and I rushed forward to grab my backpack. Once the room was clean we snuck out into the library again. After a quick scan of the area I couldn't see anyone, and frowned at Sarah. She shrugged in response. Just when I was going to say we should get back to the barracks the voices started up again. The muffled sounds were coming from a small set of vents in the corner of the room. There were people in the hallway that ran behind the library.

  Sarah grabbed my arm. "We should get out of here."

  I knew she was right, but I couldn't leave without knowing who it was. I pulled away and walked over to stand as close to the vents as I could. Sarah started whispering her disapproval, but I held up a hand to silence her. I stepped up on one of the lower shelves so I could hear better.

  The Doctor's thick accent made me cringe. "I need another test s
ubject."

  "They don't grow on trees you know."

  I frowned when I placed the voice as Gus. Was everyone awake at this hour? I shook my head and leaned in closer.

  The Doctor's voice came through clearer as they passed right next to me. "It's not a supply issue, but more of a… how do you say, motivation issue."

  "You want us to throw a candidate?" I could hear the skepticism in the Sergeant's voice. "You think getting you this much is easy? We don't have the supply to cater to your whims."

  "Not one of the good ones, but maybe every now and then, yes?"

  Gus chuckled. "You're a crazy old man. If we get caught doing this…"

  "You wait until you see where I'm getting with this one! Come now, you'll see. Then you'll not have the same reservations you have now."

  The Sergeant mumbled a response, but they were getting too far away to hear. I jumped down and turned to Sarah.

  "We need to follow them."

  Sarah's jaw dropped. "Are you nuts?"

  "Didn't you head what he just said? That doctor is a sicko. If he's doing something illegal, I want to know what it is."

  "Alex…"

  I turned to looked at Sarah who was biting her bottom lip. I flicked my head and shrugged, impatient. "If you want to say something then just say it."

  "Do you think that maybe you're letting your feelings for the Doctor get the best of you. We've all been through the same simulations. If you didn't resent him so much for those, you would see he's not a bad guy."

  I glared at her. "This has nothing to do with my feelings. This has to do with right and wrong. After what we just read, and what we just heard, are you telling me that you don't want to know what they're up to?"

  Sarah sighed, but shook her head. "I do, but is it worth the risk of getting caught?"

  I crossed my arms. "Yes."

  Sarah stared at me for a few seconds before nodding. "Then we'd better get after them."

  I made my way toward the exit as fast as I could without making too much sound. The two of us left the room and made our way around the hallway to where the men had been. I crept along hoping they hadn't gotten too far, and peered around the edge of the hallway.