Haas approached the lobby of sublevel 1, where a desk stood unattended with a logbook spread open on its surface. A set of elevator doors waited beyond.
The colonel, as he had done yesterday and the day before and so on for five years, leaned over to log out his shift. He knew Lieutenant Colonel Lewis lurked somewhere on one of the lower levels. Lewis would know by the ticking clock that command of the facility had transferred to him.
Haas scratched his signature in the log-out column, then paused and cocked his head.
He heard a noise. No, not a noise but a voice.
Daddy…help me Daddy…
Kathleen Haas, his daughter.
Faint and distant but clear.
Haas glanced around. He absently let the ballpoint pen drop. It rolled off the desk and rattled across the floor.
Haas’s subconscious tried to activate the mental alarm bells that had been trained into him by PsyOps. Alas, routine, boredom, and the open bottle of whiskey in the lower-most desk drawer in his office had dulled those lessons.
Daddy … please help me … I can’t breathe in here!
The colonel felt his hand touch his sidearm. For some reason, he knew he would need it.
Please … they put me in here, Daddy!
Colonel Haas turned away from the logbook and the elevator. He walked back down the hall from which he had come, passed the office where he had performed his daily routine for the last time, and moved along yet another of the hollow corridors. His every footstep reverberated in a series of fast clicks but there was no one around to hear.
He moved with what would later—when viewed on the security camera tapes—be thought of as a forced march. That march took him to the bulky green doors of the second elevator on sublevel 1. This lift went in only one direction: down.
Hurry, Daddy … I’m so scared …
“I’m coming, Pumpkin,” he mumbled as he pulled his key card/ID tag from a jacket pocket. His hand wavered as he reached to unlock the elevator, but another cry for help from his little girl washed away any hesitation.
The card went through quick, but the access light still glowed red. He fumbled with it and swiped again, this time more slowly. His hand trembled to the point that he nearly missed the slot, but the wires and cables of the elevator whirred to life.
He stood and waited. His balance shifted from one foot to another. Why did the elevator take so damn long?
I don’t have much time, Daddy…
“Please, honey,” he said to something beyond the closed elevator doors, “just hang on a bit longer. I’ll be there soon.”
At last, the gaping metal doors separated laterally and revealed a wide and dark freight elevator. Colonel Haas stumbled over the entryway as he stepped in, but quickly caught his balance.
Most of the lights in the elevator had long since stopped functioning, leaving only a single red bulb to illuminate the car, but that was more than enough light to guide his hand to the bottom-most button on the control panel: the button for sublevel 5. The metal doors could not close fast enough. His left hand twitched nervously as he waited for the car to move.
He finally heard the weights and pulleys start the descent. The white stencil of sublevel two flashed past the small window in the upper left corner of the elevator.The colonel squeezed his eyes shut. A vivid picture of his daughter sprung to mind. He saw her playing in the field behind the house, throwing a ball to their basset hound, Patton, who wobbled along in pursuit like the slow but faithful dog he had been.
The alarm bells inside the soldier tried to spring to life, but they were silenced easily as sublevel three flew by.
Daddy…please don’t leave me here…
Sublevel four...
I’m so afraid…help me…
“I’m coming,” he sobbed, then fought to gain control of his emotions. He knew he must appear in control. After all, a good soldier is always in control and a good commander is always in charge.
The elevator bobbed to a stop and the number “-5” appeared in the side window. After a short mechanical hiss, the jaw-like doors split open to reveal the stale white walls of sublevel five.
Daddy…I can’t wait any—
“Shhh,” he hushed the voice.
Haas paused long enough to ensure he maintained complete control of his gait. He could not afford to stumble or sway as he walked. Not now, not here. This level was nothing like the levels above. Here people cared what time it was, they cared about logbooks, they cared about strange noises and sounds, and they especially cared about people who did not look absolutely, positively, no doubt about it in control.
Colonel Haas’s shoes did not make the same echo they had made on the upper levels, because down here the halls were much tighter and shorter.
More important, down here he could hear other voices; voices coming from observation rooms and break rooms and supply wards and duty stations. Down here, several dozen soldiers stood sentry. Down here —somewhere—lurked Lieutenant Colonel Craig Lewis. Haas wanted to avoid Lewis.
He realized that he was carrying a pistol…with a round chambered and the safety off.
When did I do that?
A few soldiers dressed in green camouflage BDUs took notice of the colonel. They paused and stood straight as he passed but he did not; he did not intend to stop…until Lieutenant Colonel Lewis called to him from the open door of the break room. Haas halted.
Lieutenant Colonel Lewis sat on the near side of a large oval table. A young corporal named Sanchez sat at the far end of that table, near candy and soda vending machines.
“Hey, Kurt,” Craig said with a tone of familiarity. “I thought you’d be gone by now.”
Haas had planned to smile and invent some story of a last-minute security check, but he hesitated too long. Maybe it was a twitch, or the vacant look in his eyes. Or perhaps Haas came across as too stiff. Whatever the reason, Lewis glanced at Sanchez. The corporal’s return gaze finished a silent communication between the two.
Suddenly, painfully, Haas’s mind flooded with one clear, crisp image. The image of Lieutenant Colonel Craig Lewis on top of a naked Mrs. Haas, humping her harder and harder like some wild animal while her fingers clutched his black ass and she cried out in carnal ecstasy.
She’s been fucking him, Daddy … all the time when you weren’t home … she loved it, Daddy … they laughed at you.
Haas pulled his pistol. Both Lewis and Sanchez went for their sidearms as well but they reacted too slowly.
Kurt Haas’s first shot went straight through Lewis’s forehead with uncanny accuracy. A crimson shower of gore sprayed across the table at Sanchez. The corporal raised a hand in reflex while firing two rounds randomly across the room.
Haas fired a trio of shots into the wall above his target, suppressing the corporal behind the table.
Forget him, Daddy! Come save me! Hurry!
The colonel left the break room at a fast clip. After a moment, he came upon two sentries with M16s responding to the sound of shots fired.
Haas barked, “Corporal Sanchez has shot Lieutenant Colonel Lewis. He’s considered armed and dangerous. Shoot on sight. I’m heading to the vault to check on security. Let the others know.”
Haas walked away before they could reply, knowing the story would not hold, but hoping it would add to the confusion. That confusion was all he had left. That and a few more bullets.
As he moved through the sterile, bright hallways, a series of alarms roared to life, as well as warning lights at intersections. The red flashes mixed with the pale walls to create a surreal feeling of walking through a high-tech nightmare.
He made several turns and passed through a set of double doors before coming upon the area known as “the vault.” One guard stood in front of a lone steel door, glancing about nervously at the sirens, the lights, and his approaching CO. But, Haas thought with some vague pride, this soldier stood ready to do his job despite the fear conjured by those alarm bells.
“Sir?”
“Sir, yes sir! Is this a drill?” He asked, sounding hopeful.
“No, son, I’m afraid it isn’t,” Haas answered as he looked into the sentry’s eyes, which were, truth be known, much more in control than his own. “Apparently Corporal Sanchez has gone haywire and shot Colonel Lewis. We’re trying to find him now, but this may be bigger than we think.” He put a hand on the young man’s shoulder: “I need you to do your job, soldier. I need you to stop anyone from going through this outer door. We don’t know how many people are in on this.”
The guard nodded in the affirmative with a commendable level of confidence.
“Good. I’ll be right back.”
Haas opened the steel door behind the sentry and walked down a short, wide hallway. At the end of the hall loomed yet another thick security door, this one with a reinforced viewing window. Colonel Haas pounded on the door. He knew two soldiers were stationed on the other side. The question was whether they had paid attention to all their special training.
A freckle-faced young soldier peeked out the window in the door. Haas punched the intercom button and ordered, “Open this door. We have an emergency.”
The soldier hesitated. If Haas wanted to enter, he should have the appropriate key card. The problem was that Haas was not the officer in charge of sublevel five for that shift. That officer had been Lieutenant Colonel Craig Lewis, who was currently on his way to a different level altogether.
Haas realized that he should have thought to take the security card from Lewis’s body, but in his urgent flight to the vault he had let this important detail slip.
Daddy…there’s…no…air… in…here.
“Listen, soldier,” Haas commanded in a deep tone that required all his effort. “Colonel Lewis has been shot dead by Corporal Sanchez, who is now in possession of the entry card. This is an a-fucking numero uno emergency. Open this door right now or you had better not ever come out of there.”
The soldier did not hesitate this time. Haas heard the bolt slide. He also heard the protests of the other soldier on duty in the area known as the “vestibule.” It had earned that designation because it stood as the last security point between the rest of the complex and the vault door leading to the quarantined sectors.
Inside the vestibule were two large consoles that viewed another room through thick windows. Between the two consoles and windows waited another steel-reinforced security door. The entire room filled dimensions slightly larger than the average bedroom.
The second soldier—a veteran—stood at attention as the door slammed shut behind Colonel Haas.
“Sorry, sir. Procedure dictates that no one enters this room without the proper—”
Haas shot the veteran in the chest. The soldier fell onto a console, then rolled onto the floor. He kicked violently at first, but then his motion subsided to the twitching of a few fingers and a low groan.
Haas turned the gun on the first guard. He pointed it directly at the kid’s shocked and quickly turning green face.
“Listen, soldier, this is an emergency situation that that asshole didn’t comprehend. All standard procedures are null and void. You shall do exactly as I say right here and now or I will splatter your gray matter over this floor. Do you understand me?”
The soldier nodded.
Haas moved to one of the consoles while keeping the gun pointed at the freckle-faced soldier.
The guard Haas had already shot remained alive, barely. This was of no concern to the colonel. He pushed the body away from the chair, then sat down, never moving his aim away from soldier number two.
“Take your place at your console, private,” Haas said, motioning with his gun, “and prepare to open the inner door.”
Haas referred to the door between the two consoles; the one that opened to the vault room.
As with launching a nuclear missile from a silo, opening the inner door required the simultaneous turning of two keys. Haas retrieved the first key from the top of the console where he sat. The second soldier kept his around his neck. He fumbled with the chain, dropped it once, but finally held it in his hand.
Haas slipped his key into a silver hole on the console in front of him and ordered the other soldier to do the same. The sight of his buddy’s blood on the floor served as a great motivator and the soldier did as told.
“Turn on three,” Haas commanded, then counted.
The freckle-faced kid turned his key in perfect unison with Colonel Haas.
As soon as the door’s heavy bolts released, a new set of alarms tore through the complex.
Daddy…come get me now before it’s too late!
“Sorry, son,” Haas said as he stood again. “I can’t have you letting anyone in here just yet. You see, my daughter’s locked up behind that door and I have to get her out.”
The colonel shot the freckle-faced kid in the knee. He screamed as he collapsed.
Haas turned the heavy latch on the now-unlocked inner door. It swung open and he entered the vault room.
Several rows of track lighting, thick perforated soundproofing panels, and three different security cameras decorated the pure-white chamber. In the upper corners of the room sat strange round metallic pods. Those pods, Haas knew, housed a series of defensive devices.
Everything in the room, including Haas himself, concentrated on a large metal door that resembled a small bank vault, yet it was much, much more.
Haas approached it despite a lonely voice in his head warning him to stand down. That lonely voice was easily cast aside by the sound of his daughter’s voice.
Daddy … you’ve come … let me out of here, Daddy! LET … ME … OUT!
Haas gazed at the door’s fine steel finish then ran his hand across the surface. It felt cold and smooth.
To the right of the door beckoned a control panel with four lights and four heavy switches, not unlike oversized circuit breakers.
“Right there, sir!”
The shout came from behind.
Haas did not need to turn around to see the M16s. Either Sanchez had entered with Lewis’s security card or the guard Haas had shot in the knee had managed to open the door. Either way, a part of the colonel felt pleased.
While his pistol dangled from one hand, he used the other to push the first switch, sending one of the lights from red to green as a heavy electronic bolt slid open.
“Drop your gun, sir! Don’t make us shoot you!” Sanchez shouted. “Concentrate sir, remember how they told…”
Sanchez still spoke but his words faded amid the Klaxons, the screams of the soldier shot in the knee, and the voice inside Colonel Haas’s head.
Daddy…it’s almost too late…
Haas activated the second switch, and yet another light turned from red to green and yet another electronic bolt released.
Corporal Sanchez pleaded with him to stop, reciting from the textbook for such emergencies: reasoning with him, trying to get him to concentrate, trying to make him remember.
What was my focus again? Was it a wildflower or something?
Whatever the psychological warfare experts had wanted him to focus on was so far removed from his mind that he could not find it.
The third switch opened and the third of four bolts made the door vibrate as it unlocked with a loud thud.
Haas felt a tremendous push in the back that slammed him forward into the door. A millisecond later, he heard the sound of exploding cartridges
Warmness rushed over his body. His strength flowed out. His body fell heavily to the floor, one arm reaching for the sealed door.
“I’m sorry, Katy…”
Read the rest of Opposing Force: The God Particle at http://amzn.to/1hBD6nJ
Also by Anthony DeCosmo
Beyond Armageddon Series
Beyond Armageddon
Beyond Armageddon II: Empire
Beyond Armageddon III: Parallels
Beyond Armageddon IV: Schism
Beyond Armageddon V:
Fusion
Opposing Force Series
Opposing Force 1: The God Particle
Opposing Force 2: The Cannibal Virus
Opposing Force 3: Hans Hagen (coming 2014)
A Tale of Wolves
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright 2014 Anthony DeCosmo
1. Preemptive Strike
2. Flash Fire
3. Commander Hawthorne
4. Earth
5. England
6. Kost
7. Blast Off
8. The Virgil
9. Games in Outer Space
10. Wren
11. Titan
12. Deep Freeze
13. Front Lines
14. Lieutenant Thomas
15. Change of Plans
16. Lazarus
17. Junkie
18. Hidden Treasure
19. Food for Thought
20. Oberon
21. Lecture
22. SE 185
23. There and Back
24. Assignment
25. Team Building
26. Titania
27. Crunch Time
28. New Assignment
29. Launch
30. Captain's Table
31. Halfway Point
32. Ganymede
33. Gliese 581g
34. Loyalties
35. Discovery
36. Night and Day
37. Boots on the Ground
38. Beacon
39. Signs
40. Decisions
41. Field Survey
42. Shock Wave
43. Goliaths
44. Captain Charles
45. Space Junk
46. The Russians
47. Pandora's Box
48. Rally
49. Entanglements
50. Elpis
Free sample of Opposing Force: The God Particle
Also by Anthony DeCosmo
Project Sail Page 39