Once all the passengers are aboard the jet rises above the tree line and quickly accelerates to the speed of sound. The Raptors follow and engage missile lock, firing a volley at the ship. The jet pivots to avoid the incoming projectiles, but it’s too late. A blast rocks the ship and sends it into a momentary spiral. Cole, Paige and Goto bounce helplessly along the floor of the passenger bay, shaken from the impact of the explosion.
“Can’t you put up some futuristic deflector shields or something?” Cole screams.
“If this were an episode of Star Trek we could,” Goto shouts back. “But unfortunately we’re going to have to make do with what we have.” When the jet rights itself he staggers to an intercom on the wall, slamming his palm into the single red button. “Is our cloaking device still operational?”‘
“Negative,” the crackling voice of the pilot replies, the intercom having been damaged from the blast. “But we were lucky – the hull is mostly intact. Should we return fire?”
“No,” Goto snaps back. “We can’t risk our only aircraft in a dogfight. Can you safely circle back around and move into position to bomb the Collider?”
“Forget it,” Paige shouts. “We can’t just turn back and destroy the target. This could be our only chance at contacting Dia – if anything we need to land and go find her.”
“Three more bogeys are approaching from the east,” the Captain interjects. “We can’t land, and we can’t get into a position for a bombing. We either fight back or make a run for it, Mister Goto. Your call.”
He glances back at Paige before answering. “Push it up to two-thousand and return to the Outback.”
“Copy that,” the Captain replies.
The Raptors are following close behind at Mach one, keeping pace with the jet as it continues its escape. The massive fusion engines seem to be functioning properly; surprising since they were struck with two direct hits that would have reduced a regular aircraft to smouldering wreckage. A plume of black smoke trails from a hole in its left wing, but it remains functional.
The pilot of one of the Raptors re-engages missile lock and readies his thumb over the trigger. “Base Camp, this is Green Leader. Preparing to fire a second volley.”
Before the pilot’s commander can give authorization the jet propels itself to three times the speed of sound, and disappears out of sight. Not long after they lose visual contact the target vanishes from their radars.
The pilot shakes his head in disbelief. He’s never seen an aircraft move that quickly before. “Base Camp, the target bugged out and went home. Should we pursue?”
“Negative, Green Leader.” The General replies. “Mission accomplished. Turn around and come home.”
Chapter Nine – Disengage
Amazon Rain Forest, Brazil | January 26, 2012 | 9:43 am, Amazon Standard Time
“Who wants to explain to me what the hell those things were?” Cole tries to remain still as a pair of medics apply ointment to his back and arms. Thanks to his accelerated healing, most of his skin has already grown back, but they’re treating the remaining wounds nonetheless. Goto and Paige sit across from him on a cot in the small medical room, awaiting their turns to be examined.
Goto cocks his head to the side and uses a cotton swap to dab some fresh blood from the inside of his ear. “The General seems to have been recruiting SPB’s, but that’s just the beginning of our problems. The one that attacked you was using some form of pyrokinesis.”
“Well I figured that I didn’t spontaneously combust,” Cole replies dryly. “But that armor...I’ve never felt anything like it. I was punching it at full force, and I couldn’t even make a dent.”
“Federation Armor from 3016,” Paige explains. “They’re layered with graphene, making them nearly indestructible.”
Cole knows that he’s heard that term before. “Graphene...you mean like the stuff that this jet is covered with?”
“Precisely.” Goto can’t believe he’d not considered this until he saw the figures in the jungle; that he had completely forgotten it was part of their original negotiation with The General several years ago.
“The armor is the most advanced personal defense technology we have in the future, and it was sent back with myself and the Collectors. Unfortunately, Govinda decided to sell our entire stockpile to the U.S. Government, along with the rest of our tech.”
“Stockpile?” Paige asks. “So how many suits did Govinda sell?”
“We originally brought back a hundred...that I know of.”
Annoyed with the medics prodding at his back, Cole frowns and gently swats them away. “So what’s the Achilles heel on these things?”
“Paige shakes her head. “I’m not following.”
“Like what’s the weak point?” he asks. “How do we take these things out? There has to be some flaw we can take advantage of.”
Goto shakes his head. “There isn’t, Mister Cole, that’s what we’re trying to explain to you. The American Federation tested and developed these suits for a hundred and fifty years. They’re impervious to firearms, heat, cold, toxins, and the shell can’t be broken. They’re the most perfect combat exoskeletons ever developed.”
Cole doesn’t believe it – there has to be some way around them. “What about electrocuting these guys?”
“Not an option,” Goto explains. “The suits function as a Faraday cage, shielding the wearer from all electrical charges.”
“Didn’t you say that you had some guns stocked in the Outback? Uzi and AK-47’s and stuff?”
Goto lifts an ice pack to his forehead and replies with a weak smile. “We’d have a better chance at causing damage by throwing rocks at them. In the future we have antimatter weapons that can slice through the suits with relative ease, but we weren’t permitted to bring any of them back with us.” A wise decision by The Nine, he recalls. If they had, Govinda could have sold them as well, and the General would be in possession of some truly terrifying weapons.
“Maybe a bomb then?” Paige suggests. “The Aithon is equipped with explosives, right?”
“A direct hit, possibly. But they’re incredibly impact resistant, as you discovered.” Goto’s calm demeanor starts to show signs of cracking – for the first time that Cole or Paige can remember, he seems genuinely concerned. Not irked, or annoyed. They had seen that. This was different and genuinely unsettled the pair. “Make no mistake about it,” he continues. “We were all incredibly fortunate today. We barely escaped with our lives.”
The recon mission was a near disaster, but at least it had revealed a portion of the General’s strategy. He was originally planning to prevent super powered beings from manifesting altogether by contaminating the world’s water supply with a vaccine – a ‘cure’ that Govinda and the Collectors had engineered in exchange for billions of dollars. That plan seems to have been put on hold, as the General is now actively recruiting SPB’s and training them as soldiers. Coupled with the Federation Armor, a small army of them could be unstoppable.
“Something simply doesn’t make sense,” Goto adds. “The General announced publicly that the Collider was nearly complete, and revealed its location to the public – no doubt in an attempt to draw us out into the open. But what was he trying to accomplish?”
Paige slowly nods. “You’re right. If he wanted to keep it a secret he could have tried to activate it and open a portal with Dia, and we might never have even known, let alone tried to stop him.”
“Well, now we know where he is, and what he’s planning to do,” Cole says, sliding a fresh shirt over his head. “So it looks like the General made a tactical mistake.”
“That’s the thing,” Paige says with a heavy sigh. “The General doesn’t make mistakes. He wanted us in the Amazon for a reason...I just don’t know why.”
Chapter Ten – Mythomania
Amazon Rain Forest, Brazil | January 26, 2012 | 9:33 am, Amazon Standard Time
Twenty kilometers north of the construction site in a remote part of the jungle sits a
bomb shelter, buried deep beneath the jungle floor. This is the location where the security is managed for the new Large Hadron Collider, known by the code name ‘Base Camp.’
The General emerges from the control room to meet with Dia, who is waiting in the sparsely decorated lounge. She nervously raps her fingers against the arm of an old couch, awaiting an update. “So?” she blurts out. “Don’t just stand there, tell me what happened.”
“It was them,” he confirms with a small nod. “Cole, Goto and your sister.”
“Are they all right?”
“They’re fine. They got away, but not before wreaking havoc on our construction site.” He motions for Dia to enter the control room. “Come, see for yourself.”
The dusty concrete room is equipped with more than a dozen outdated monitors, surrounding a primary screen that dominates most of the back wall. A slender woman with short red hair sits at the controls, navigating her fingers across the labyrinth of keyboards and oversized buttons.
“Bring up the footage,” The General orders, pointing to the main monitor.
Security footage appears on the screen, taken from a stationary camera mounted high above a clearing in the jungle. The static-covered video flickers, and as the picture quality stabilizes she makes out a figure – Cole. Even from a distance his muscular frame is clearly recognizable, and he’s sprinting from an opening in the trees. He attacks a guard like a wild animal. Cole unleashed a flurry of punches to the soldier’s helmet, and then launches him through the air, sending his limp body spiralling into the dense jungle. A different camera angle catches him dragging a second guard to the ground by the legs, pinning him down, and then violently wrenching on his head until his neck breaks. The picture crackles again and Paige’s face comes into focus, launching a bolt of purple energy at a third soldier.
“What happened?” Dia asks, studying the video. The various scenes continue to replay in sequence on the smaller monitors. Having not seen the events unfold as they occurred, she’s oblivious to the fact that a number of key moments had been quickly edited out before she entered the control room.
“We sent out a small security detail to make contact with them, but this was the result. One confirmed death and two serious casualties.” The General points back to the main screen. “Paige’s magnetokinesis disrupted our cameras, so as you can see the picture cuts in and out. But we were able to pick this up as well.”
Another overhead camera zooms tight on Paige, who is crouching over Cole, gently cradling his head. From the angle it’s difficult to tell exactly what’s happening, but their bodies are pulled close, with their arms wrapped around each other.
“I’ve seen enough.” Dia folds her arms tightly across her chest and closes her eyes, turning away. “So, what now?”
“Now we discuss strategy, Danica.” He reaches out to his daughter and strokes her long platinum hair, sweeping his hand gently from the top of her head down to the middle of her back.
The gesture feels calculated. Designed, she suspects, to elicit some emotional response – possibly to trigger some early childhood memory where she felt warm and protected. But calculated or not, it doesn’t go unappreciated.
He takes her silence as a cue to continue. “Based on this footage, I have some concerns about Donovan Cole. He’s far more powerful that we could have anticipated.” The General pulls open the heavy iron door and escorts Dia back into the brightly lit lounge area. “And he seems to be getting stronger and more resilient as time passes. If anyone is going to stop you from getting back to 3016, it’s him.”
“But I just don’t understand,” Dia sighs, dropping back into the couch. “After everything that Paige did to me, how can she keep this up? Why can’t she just let me be happy? And Cole...” She trails off, burying her face in her palms.
“I don’t know,” the General says softly, taking a seat next to her. “With Goto leading them I can’t imagine what their plan is. But whatever their reason was for coming here, they wanted us both eliminated.”
She shakes her head. “No, I can’t believe that.”
“You don’t have to.” The General stands and extends his hand towards Dia. “Come with me and I’ll show you.”
***
Twenty minutes later they arrive by jeep at the edge of the construction site, pulling over by some charred debris. The General steps out and assists Dia from the vehicle.
“This is it,” he explains, motioning to the scorched earth surrounding them. “This is the place where they dropped their bomb.”
“But why?” Dia asks, scanning the area. Some bricks and fragments of wood remain, but the rest of the structure – whatever it was – has been reduced to charcoal. Some of the remains are still smoking.
“It’s one of my standard military tactics: this was a decoy. They assumed that we were inside, so they destroyed it before they retreated.”
The realization hits Dia like a shotgun blast to the skull. Her head spins and she feels nauseous, leaning against the side of the jeep for support. Her own sister, who spent years wiping her memory, was just part of a tactical strike to assassinate her – along with the man she was at one point falling in love with. She wasn’t ready to talk to them, and has avoided contact for the last six months, but she was planning to reach out to them before she traveled back to 3016. Mend some fences, and hopefully get some closure. Dia figured she would at least give Paige a chance to apologize before returning to her old life. But from the looks of it, Cole and her sister have other ideas, and neither seems particularly broken up over her absence – especially judging by the security footage. “So you’re saying they tried to kill us? Just now?” Dia asks. “No attempt to make contact with me at all?”
“I’m afraid not.” The General’s gravelly voice lowers in volume, almost sympathetic – a rare display of emotion. “We tried to explain the situation, but you saw what happened: they attacked first. And there’s more. I promised I’d never hide anything from you, even if the truth hurt. Listen to this.” He pulls a phone from his pocket and taps the touch-screen, beginning a recording.
She immediately recognizes Paige’s voice. The audio is broken up, but the message is clear. “...turn back and destroy the target...this could be our only chance at...Dia.”
The General taps the screen with his thumb and stops the recording. “Danica, I’m sorry you had to hear that.”
“I’m not,” she replies, brushing the hair from her face and straightening her posture. “I’d rather know what’s happening than be lied to. I’m sick of people trying to protect me.”
“They won’t stop, you know. They’ll keep coming until the new Collider has been destroyed, and both of us are dead. We need leverage.”
Dia narrows her eyes. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“It’s Cole. We need a tactical advantage over him. A way to put pressure on him and get him to crack.” The General’s intelligence shows that Cole’s anger and aggression have been an issue for him in the past, but it’s going to take something exceptional to throw him completely off his game. “I need to know where his vulnerabilities are...family, friends. Anything I can use.”
Dia drops her head. “Not much family that he’s close to. No parents. The only people he really cares about are that idiot Jens, and his trainer, Gary.”
“You’re referring to Gary Marciano, from New York City.” The General says. “We’ve tried to locate him for the last several weeks, but we haven’t been successful.”
“Yeah, Cole warned him about possibly being captured. He’s hiding out at a friend’s cabin. Some little place that’s off-grid, upstate near a lake.”
The General nods. “Thank you, Danica. I know that was difficult for you, but it was very helpful.”
“Not that difficult, actually,” she replies with a more formal tone. She begins enunciating each syllable, and her accent subtly changes. “After what they all tried to do here today, maybe some retaliation is in order.”
Chapter Eleve
n – Autodidact
Western Australia | January 26, 2012 | 6:08 pm, Western Standard Time
“He keeps treating me like a goddamned baby!” Allison paces back and forth on the tennis court, clutching her racket in one hand and a ball in the other. “And Goto is always bossing me around. Every day it’s like, ‘Allison, don’t eat nachos on the couch’, or ‘Allison, don’t practice your serve in my office, you might break something’, or ‘Allison, stop playing with that, it’s a rocket launcher’. I can’t do anything around here!”
“Maybe you need to unwind,” Jens replies from across the court, gripping his racket with two hands like a baseball bat. He’s not sure how Allison talked him into playing – or even what the rules are – but agreeing to come out to the tennis court was the only way to stop her incessant moping around the compound. He’s not sure this is much better. “How was your last massage?”
“Talk about amateur hour,” she scoffs. “I need a real massage from a professional sports therapist. The least that Goto can do is offer to let me take the jet to Thailand where they actually know what they’re doing.”
“Allison...I mean, Athena? Are you going to serve the ball or something?” He’s not sure how much more of the heat he can withstand. Even though it’s mercifully overcast, the temperature is still unbearable. They’ve been out on the court for less than fifteen minutes and Jens has already consumed a gallon of water and two bottles of Lightning Liquid.
“Oh, and about my stupid super powers.” She continues her rant, ignoring Jens’ question. “What the hell is that all about? I manifest one lousy time, accidentally put a hole in my trainer, and then what? Nothing. I haven’t even had a spark since that day, and that was half a freakin’ year ago.”
“You can always try popping some Muse?” Jens suggests. “That seems to work pretty well for everyone else.”
Legacy (The Vs. Reality Series Book 3) Page 6