Mark and his men had now got all the intelligence they needed. It was time to return to the meeting point and the other units.
Slowly but surely the unit backtracked to the meeting point to await the arrival of the others. They wondered if they would have had as much success as Mark and his unit. Indeed, when the other units arrived back they all had their own stories to tell, but now wasn’t the time. Mark mainly wanted to get back out without being discovered, so that they would be able to use the sewers again, perhaps even for an all-out attack one day.
The three units slowly made their way back, first to the manhole then down the ladder into the relative safety of the sewer. Once everyone was back inside the sewer system of tunnels, Mark and Bill pored over the escape routes Bill had already highlighted, looking for the best one back directly to Manassas Park, as opposed to going to Fairfax.
The route they chose was going to be a gruelling six-hour journey, but if they were going to be using the sewer tunnels on a regular basis, it would be good training. Mark couldn’t wait to get back so he could scrutinise the intelligence they had gathered.
The return journey was as disciplined as the outward one. Each hour they would stop for a litre of water to keep themselves hydrated. At the third stop they would have a high-energy meal break and a twenty-minute rest. Bill along with two soldiers was point duty again, documenting every step of the way - all the different passages, grills, every aspect of the sewers - the more information the better.
**
40
The night had been an arduous one. It had actually taken seven hours to get back to the Manassas base, but after four hours’ sleep Mark was up and about again, putting all the intelligence gathered the night before into some semblance of order. It was starting to become very clear that the Annunakis were up to something and, whatever it was, it was big and nasty.
The operation had been a great success. They had penetrated deep into the heart of the Annunaki base and got out again without the Annunaki even noticing them. They had begun to chart the system of sewers all around them in such detail, that Mark had decided to make this a full-time job for Bill.
Mark was sitting at a dusty old table in the living room of one of the houses the resistance had commandeered. Trophies and photographs were strewn around the table awaiting investigation.
The Annunaki were obviously trying to turn humans into something. The photographic evidence from that horrendous room bore witness to that. What was the silver-like material and framework under it, and those ugly black hair-like things which almost seemed to be growing on the material?
Then there were the pieces of metal that had been picked up. Mark took a closer look at one. Then he had to take a second look. It was like a tiny scorpion. What the hell is it, he wondered?
He stood up and scanned the room as if looking for something. He went over to a dusty window ledge and picked up an old pair of glasses, dusted them down and returned to the table and the piece of metal. Holding the glasses a few inches away from the object magnified it three times.
‘It is, it’s a tiny little metal scorpion!’
He was no longer speaking to himself. Bill had joined him at the table and was desperately trying to get a good look at the object.
‘Do you see it, Bill?’
Bill’s mouth dropped open. Mark was right.
‘It’s a bloody scorpion!’
‘What the hell does it do?’
Mark’s question drew a sharp intake of breath from Bill.
‘Maybe it’s some kind of torture device?’
By the hour, Bill was becoming Mark’s right-hand man, a confidant almost.
‘I don’t think so, they wouldn’t have left it in the body, would they?’
The object had both of them puzzled.
‘What else could it be?’
‘I really don’t know. Where was it found?’
‘Just on the floor of that room, I think.’
‘Who found it?’
‘I believe it was Jason.’
‘Can you do me a favour, Bill. Go get Jason and we’ll see exactly where he found it.’
‘No problem, Mark. I’ll be back shortly.’
Mark was pouring out another strong, hot coffee, the third of the morning, when Bill returned with Jason.
‘Want a coffee?’
It was a question aimed at both the arrivals.
Both men nodded and gratefully accepted a cup of the strong, black brew. Jason took a large swig of the coffee, and instantly regretted it as the hot fluid scalded his mouth.
To cover his embarrassment he picked up the object and whistled, half hoping that that would help to cool his mouth.
‘It was under the head of one of the bodies when we moved them. Nearly didn’t see it, but it glinted in my night vision sights. I thought it might be relevant so I picked it up.’
‘So it had been under the head?’
‘Yes, not far from the ear, if I remember right.’
‘But under the head?’
‘Yes, what is it?’
‘It’s like a small metal scorpion.’
At this point Jason ceased his investigation of the object and dropped it hurriedly back down on the table. He took a nervous step backwards, instinctively rubbing his hands on his trousers.
‘Good God, what’s that for?’
‘We don’t know, Jason, we just don’t know.’
Mark’s answer did nothing to reassure Jason. In fact, they now seemed to have more questions than answers. Then Bill stepped into the breach.
‘Why don’t we send it all up to the Mars base where they’ve got the equipment to examine it properly?
‘My sentiments exactly, but we can go one better. There was a more or less complete body in that room, wasn’t there?’
Bill thought about it.
‘Yes, there was, right in the corner of the room.’
‘OK, well tonight we’ll go back and get that body. That way they can do a full autopsy.’
Bill looked at Jason. Jason looked less than thrilled by the prospect - that room was the stuff of nightmares. When no one else spoke. Bill took the initiative.
‘Right, sir, do you want me to put a team together or are you going to do it?’
‘Thanks, anyway, Bill, but I’ll do it. Can you put a route together again and get the provisions organised?’
**
The journey back to the Annunaki base was more or less the same as the night before, although this time Mark had opted to take fifty men, this was because on the journey back they would be carrying a dead weight and he wanted to rotate the bearers of the dead body as often as possible. Jason had picked the short straw. He and a unit of ten men would have to go into the Annunaki base and retrieve the dead body.
The stench in the room at the Annunaki base hadn’t got any better. If anything it was worse. However, getting back to the room had been easy.
Jason spotted the dead body still in the same place, in the corner of the large room. Six of the resistance fighters were sent to place the corpse into an extra large body bag. Then, just as they were turning to go back to Jason’s position on the other side of the gruesome room, Jason heard a faint noise coming from outside. He signalled for the unit to hit the deck. To a man they obeyed and blended into the other body parts strewn across the floor of the charnel house.
The twin doors to the outer court burst open and two very large human-like shapes appeared in the dimly lit doorway. They appeared to be silver in colour or at least wearing some kind of silver suit. They were carrying something, but Jason couldn’t quite make out what it was.
The two silver shapes flexed themselves and hurled whatever they were carrying the full three hundred feet width of the room. It smashed against the back wall, and dropped right down on top of the six men hiding on the floor. The two beings turned on their heels, closed the doors behind them and left as mysteriously as they had arriv
ed.
Jason left it a minute or two to make sure they were clear of the room, then signalled to the men to return to him.
‘What did they throw into the room?’ Jason asked one of the men.
‘Bodies, bloody dead bodies. Three hundred feet without breaking sweat. That’s not natural, now is it?’
Jason couldn’t help but agree.
The rest of the trip back to the sewer manhole was uneventful and they rejoined Mark and Bill in the sewer with the dead body. It was now taking eight men to carry the dead body because of its size and weight.
The journey back to Manassas was a nightmare and took twelve hours. Fortunately Bill had packed supplies to cover nine hours out, and nine hours back, so at least they didn’t run out of food and water.
Back at the Manassas base Jason was recounting his experience in the Room of Death, as it was now known, to an astonished Mark.
‘It was incredible, throwing those bodies three hundred feet like that. What are those things?’
‘Unfortunately, I think they are what the Annunaki are making out of humans, some kind of super monster. I’m just wondering if that little metal scorpion is some kind of mind-control device.’
‘That would make sense.’
‘Right, we need to get this stuff up to Mars. Any ideas?’
‘Finney’s going to need to send a shuttle for it, isn’t he?’
Bill’s reply failed to take into account the two massive Annunaki battle cruisers hovering in the sky just north of them.
Mark shook his head.
‘No, those battle cruisers would have a shuttle for breakfast. We need something foolproof.’
Jason piped up.
‘What about meeting a shuttle at the Potomac? It could arrive submerged then leave submerged.’
Mark slapped Jason on the back.
‘Nice one, Jason. You and Bill work out the details and contact Finney.’
Bill and Jason set to work. It certainly was going to involve a long hike for someone. Bill started getting a map of the sewers organised. It would make sense for them to go underground, which was now the preferred method of travelling anyway. Jason set about organising a team to transport the gathered intelligence, and arrange a pick-up point on the Potomac river.
**
41
Finney received instructions from Jason. It should by all accounts be an easy job: quick trip to the Potomac river in America, pick some stuff up, then off to Western Australia, then at an opportune moment off to the Mars base, job done. The shuttle was underwater just off the piers at Featherstone Shores awaiting the arrival of the party from the resistance in Manassas. The signal would be an underwater flare.
The pilot and two ESG guards had been waiting around for five hours and still nothing. They were concerned now and were starting to wonder if the mission had been compromised, when into the murky depths a flare descended slowly but surely towards the muddy bottom, its reddish brown glow signalling that everything was OK. The shuttle immediately surfaced at the most southerly pier close to Boaters Cove Place, and the transfer began.
The shuttle pilot did raise an eyebrow at the unusual cargo: a dead body, unusual looking body parts and other miscellaneous items. The three civilians coming on board he didn’t know about, since they were a last-minute addition by Mark. These were the civilians that had been found wandering about with various injuries and memory loss. Mark thought that they would be safer and certainly better off on the Mars base once they had been discharged from the makeshift Manassas hospital.
Now safely loaded with its cargo, the shuttle submerged and headed off to Australia.
Bill, Jason, and the four units of resistance fighters returned to their underground sanctuary and began the demanding journey back to the Manassas base.
**
The little shuttle shot out of the water off Western Australia, and headed at high speed towards the Mars base. The journey itself wouldn’t take that long, but the shuttle was very vulnerable until it got closer to the Mars base. The pilot was watching his proximity detectors intently, half expecting to see a swarm of Annunaki assault ships coming at them, but for the time being he was in the clear.
The passengers on board the shuttle had been extraordinarily quiet for the whole trip under the seas, and being in space hadn’t changed that. Normally the voyage into space would provoke a vigorous conversation, but these passengers remained passive to the extent of seeming almost robotic.
**
Marie and Jumouk watched the approaching shuttle on the visual depiction console, while also keeping a close eye on the two Annunaki battle cruisers hovering above Dulles.
Strangely enough, yet again these were doing nothing to intercept the shuttle. This worried Jumouk. It worried him more than if they had taken some form of action.
What were the Annunaki doing at that base? Still, at least the latest intelligence was on the rapidly approaching shuttle. That might shed some light on what they were up to.
After the shuttle had landed, the body and the various other bits of intelligence were taken off to one of the many laboratories on the Mars base. The three civilians were taken away to be debriefed by Lee in one of the conference rooms.
**
Pausanias, along with the team of ESG doctors and Dropas scientists, was particularly interested in the dead body. It was more or less complete as far as they could see, and had been through all the stages of the Annunaki process. It was established that the cause of death was an aneurism in the brain.
Pausanias thought this had been caused by the metallic implant in the brain. It was obvious that the implant was some kind of mind-control device, and on attaching itself to the brain, or sometime after, caused a swelling in a blood vessel next to it. Over a period of time the wall of the swollen blood vessel failed, causing a major bleed and instant death.
The exoskeleton was identified as a lightweight, extremely durable alloy intended to strengthen and protect the endoskeleton. It was also used to tighten the silver skin around the body like pliable armour. The silver skin turned out to be unidentifiable, but nonetheless virtually indestructible and fire proof.
The black hair-like substances that had sprung up all over the body were checked under a device similar to an electron microscope, and turned out to be inert strings of Nanites. The function of these Nanites was still unclear, and was causing a debate of some heat between the scientists.
By all accounts the monstrous creation was a formidable foe, and the ESG were going to have to come up with a way to quickly and effectively neutralise it.
**
Lee had begun the debriefing of the three civilians. Although he had just begun, he had quickly become aware that something was not quite right. All three were all almost totally unresponsive and vacant. None had any memory of who they were or what had happened to them. Lee was starting to become suspicious. These weren’t simple cases of amnesia, there was a lot more to it than that.
As a precaution he instructed the medical team to carry out MRI scans on the three. The results left no doubt: all three had small metal implants in their brains.
Lee ordered the three to be restrained and put in one of the holding cells until he had reported back to Jumouk and a proper course of action been devised.
**
Lee and Jumouk were sitting in one of the small annexes off the main control room, sipping green tea and looking remarkably relaxed. Marie was watching them covertly. She had now heard most of the details about the super monster and was wondering how Lee and Jumouk could look so relaxed about it.
Poring over the ever-increasing pile of data and facts in front of them, they had both come to the obvious conclusion, The Annunaki agenda had changed. All the facts now pointed to the same thing. The Annunaki were looking for total domination and colonisation of the Earth, perhaps using these super monsters to achieve their goal of enslaving mankind as mindless zombie slaves, and making the Dropa
s extinct.
It seemed to them, however, there was just one flaw in that scenario. The Annunaki forces had been seriously depleted and Jumouk and Lee doubted whether there would be enough of them to carry this plan out effectively. Between the ESG, Dropas, Androids and resistance fighters the Annunaki were fighting hard to hold their own, if not actually fighting a losing battle.
Another two cups of green tea arrived.
Battle for the Earth Page 18