by Mike Kraus
“But General—”
“One. More. Word. And all three of you will find yourselves in cells eating bread and water for the next month!”
Dr. Evans opened his mouth to speak again but Rick elbowed him in the side and turned to the door. The trio slowly walked out, with Rick being the last. He turned to give General Black one final look before closing the door. “Asshole.” Rick mumbled to Dr. Evans and Jane as he stood next to them.
“Time for Plan B?” Jane looked at Dr. Evans and Rick. “Or do you two think you could wrestle him down and beat some sense into him?”
Rick shook his head and looked around in the hallway before whispering to the others. “No. We need to move on and it sounds like we have a limited window. Only forty-eight hours till they lock this place down.”
“We must find a way out of here by tomorrow.” Dr. Evans gulped nervously. “Knowing where to search for the information we need would be helpful as well.”
Rick put his hand to his head, rubbing away sweat and grease. “We all need some sleep. We’ve been at this far too long. Come on, let’s head back and get showers and a few hours of rest. We’ll reconvene in the morning and figure something out.”
As the trio headed back down the hall towards the building that housed their rooms a uniformed figure approached from a nearby cross-hallway. “Mr. Waters?”
Rick turned to look at the man and nodded. “Yeah, that’s me.”
The uniformed soldier glanced at Jane and Dr. Evans before looking back to Rick. “I need to speak with you privately for a moment, sir. It’s about your gear from your vehicle.”
“Oh thank goodness. Finally!” He turned and waved at Dr. Evans and Jane. “You two head back. I’ll take care of this before I head back.”
The three exchanged quick goodbyes before Rick turned back to the soldier. “You said something about my gear?” The soldier looked both ways down the hallway before ducking into a nearby office and pulling Rick along with him.
“Ow! What the hell?” Rick pushed the soldier back and gave him a confused and angry look. “What’s your problem?”
“Mr. Waters! Please, keep quiet.” The soldier was whispering as he approached Rick again. “We don’t have more than a minute before I’m missed.” Rick, sensing that something important was about to be communicated, kept his mouth shut and nodded in understanding.
“I’m a technician, Mr. Waters. I work on the scanners and have had the opportunity to work with other agencies as part of interdisciplinary studies. I’ve learned… a lot. A lot about how different systems work. The observational ones in particular.” The soldier licked his lips nervously. “I love my country, Mr. Waters. I love it dearly. I can’t stand to watch things happen like this.”
“What are you talking about? Rick whispered. The soldier reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box about the size of a large cellphone.
“I’ve done a bit of sleuthing myself, Mr. Waters. Dr. Evans is right. The only way to defeat this virus is to attack it head-on.” The man held out the black box and Rick gingerly accepted it.
“What’s this?”
“It has a thirty-day battery life on standby and eight days if you’re using it at full capacity. I’ve disabled the network connectivity so it won’t get infected. But it will help you get to the systems you need to have a shot at ending this.”
Rick fiddled with the box for a few seconds before looking at the soldier. “Who are you? Why are you helping us?”
The soldier ignored the questions. “Your best bet to leave is early in the morning. The shift change is at zero four hundred. Take the General’s car. You won’t get as many questions that way. Just tell them you’re running an errand for him.”
A shout from down the corridor made the soldier freeze in fright before stepping around Rick, a nervous expression painted on his face. “Please, Mr. Waters. Don’t let it end like this.” With that final statement the soldier was gone, running down the corridor before Rick could get another word in. Utterly confused by what had just happened Rick looked down at the small box in his hand for a long moment before slipping it back into his pocket and hurrying out of the office, down the hall and back towards his room.
This just keeps getting stranger and stranger.
Chapter 13
Somewhere between Ellisville, VA and Blacksburg, VA
Two hours and three pages of notes later and Dianne was beginning to feel like she understood the dynamics of the encampment. While she and Jason weren’t able to hear anything anyone was saying the body language and habits of the people residing in the fortified gas station made it clear who they were and what they were doing.
The people of the camp were divided into two categories: those with the guns and those without. The people with the guns spent most of their time guarding the place while those without spent most of their time cooking, working on vehicles and performing menial labor. Dianne wasn’t sure if the people who didn’t have weapons had been pressed into servitude or whether they were there by choice but regardless they were treated with no small amount of contempt and dismissal by those who did have weapons.
Tina Carson, meanwhile, appeared to be a unique anomaly. She—unlike the other people sans weapons—was constantly under watch though she wasn’t tasked with any laborious activities. After getting food near one of the fires she had been hauled back into the shed behind the gas station. There were no signs of overt violent activities going on and Dianne wasn’t entirely certain what to make of Tina’s situation.
“Hey.” Dianne heard a whisper behind her and turned to see Jason slinking through the brush.
“Heyo. Everybody good?”
“Yep. Mark said the cameras have been clear and they’ve not heard or seen a thing today.”
“Good.” Dianne nodded. “Thanks for checking in on them.”
“No problem. Anything new about the camp down there?”
Dianne looked down at her notebook and shrugged. “Nothing really. I’ve got a few more notes on red shirt and blue shirt. They seem to be the leaders but they spend so much time inside I couldn’t tell you more than that. The guards traded a few gallons of gasoline with another group that came up.”
“What’d they want for it this time?”
“I think the group handed over a cage with some chickens inside. Seems like a bad trade to me.”
“No kidding. That’s a horrible trade!”
“Somebody drove up in an older car and unloaded several sacks of… something. I’m not sure what it was. Grain or something, maybe. They got several gallons of gas and left.”
“So these guys have set up a trading post?”
“It makes sense, doesn’t it? They’ve got a bunch of gasoline and that’s got to be in hot demand. With two full fuel trucks and who knows how much underground they can keep this trading system up for weeks or months more before running out. That’s long enough to branch out into other goods if they need or want to.”
“So they’re capitalists?”
Dianne laughed. “Well, don’t go giving capitalists a bad name. They’re still scum of the earth. I’m nearly one hundred percent sure that they keep the people without guns there as slave labor or something. Maybe labor in exchange for safety. They aren’t treated right, whatever they’re there as.”
Jason shifted into a sitting position and scanned the camp with his binoculars. “What about Tina or Dave? Anything new there?”
“No sign of Dave at all. I haven’t seen Tina since they took her back into that shed. Speaking of which, the sheds are definitely dormitories. The large one out front may be storage but the ones in back probably have mattresses all over the floors.”
“What do they use the main building for, then?”
“Who knows. They have a generator back behind it, though.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Must be a small one since we can’t hear it. But they carried some gas around back after the lights inside flicked off and they went
back on a minute later.”
“Maybe those two guys you pegged as the ringleaders are keeping the main building to themselves.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. I wish I could get more information on them.”
Jason pulled out a pack of crackers from his backpack and passed one to Dianne. “What about the two you remember from the grocery store?”
I think they’re either out or they’re sleeping. I saw the guy who looked like the leader of the group from yesterday wandering around but haven’t seen the two from the grocery store.”
Jason continued munching on his crackers and chasing them down with swigs from a bottle of water. When he finished he belched, crumpled up the wrapper and threw it in his bag and stretched his back and shoulders. “What’s the plan, then? Any thoughts?”
“I’m just doing what you said, watching and waiting.”
“We’ve done plenty of that. Now it’s time to figure out a plan.”
Dianne flipped through her notebook to a sketch of the encampment she had drawn as a reference for her notes. “There are too many of them for us to take on in a direct assault.”
“I like how you’re already talking about assaulting their encampment.” Jason grinned.
“Do you want to go down there and negotiate?” Dianne turned to look at Jason. “There’ve been more than a few people who’ve traded with them and gone their way without any issues.”
“Hm.” Jason got his binoculars back out. “I was joking but now that you mention it, that might not be a terrible idea.”
“Jason. I was joking. There’s no way in hell we should go down there and talk to them. Even with our weapons we’d be no match for their numbers. I mean, sure, we might get them to talk to us and everything would be okay. But the risk of dying is big enough that I don’t think we should even attempt it.”
“So what’s your idea?”
Dianne pointed at the sketch of the compound in her notebook. “See there near the left side at the back where they have those burned out cars on the slope? A few of them don’t look like they were shored up very well. I bet we could sneak in back there at night, go through the cars and head for the shed where they’re keeping Tina.”
“What then?”
“I assume we’d sneak back out, go around the compound and hike back to the truck.”
“Hm.” Jason grunted again. “I like the core concept but I think it needs some work.”
Dianne laughed. “Okay, Mr. Expert. You tell me what we should do.”
“Yeah, yeah. Give me a few minutes. I’m thinking.”
Jason and Dianne sat quietly while Jason looked at both the compound and Dianne’s sketch. After a few minutes of pondering he pointed out across the road. “We need to distract them. Get their attention off of the back of the compound and out towards the front.”
“How do you propose we do that?”
Jason looked up at the sky. “It’ll be dark in a few hours. Once the sun goes down I’ll head down and position myself a few hundred feet to the right, along the east side. You’ll head down to the west side near those burned out cars along the fence. I’ll set up enough noise to pull every single one of them over to the east side while you go in, get Tina and get out. We’ll meet back up at the truck and get out of here.”
“That sounds incredibly risky for you.”
Jason chuckled. “Risky? You’re the one who’ll have to go inside the compound and get her out!”
Dianne thought about Jason’s proposal before finally nodding her approval. “Fine. We’ll do it. But if anything goes wrong I want you to get out of there. I’m going to do the same. We can’t help her or anyone else if we’re dead.”
“All joking aside I really think this is the least risky solution. I’ll be far enough from the compound that I can just slip away and head back to the truck. You’re going to be the one in real danger. If you end up getting stuck and need help just fire off three quick shots and I’ll head back.”
“I sure as hell hope I don’t need to do that.”
“Me too, D. Me too.”
Chapter 14
Cheyenne Mountain Complex
Outside Colorado Springs, CO
“Did you at least get his name?”
Rick rubbed his eyes and groaned. “No. Again. I did not get his name. Or his rank.”
“Well what did he look like?”
“I don’t know... like a soldier? Average height, average weight, wearing a uniform.”
Jane stopped her pacing and sat down in a huff. “Well it would have been nice if you had been paying attention to the only person who’s so far acted like they could help us.”
“Even if we found him again I wouldn’t want to ask him for anything else.”
“Why not?”
Rick sat up in his bed and swung his legs over the side. Jane sat in a chair near the shower while Dr. Evans was perched on top of the desk, gently kicking his legs back and forth as he watched Jane and Rick talk. In his hands was the small black object Rick had received from the soldier.
“Because,” Dr. Evans said, holding up the object in his hands, “if someone finds out he gave this to us then he will never see the light of day again. Ever.”
“You figured out what it is?” Jane looked over at Dr. Evans.
“It’s just a miniaturized computer. Nothing all that fancy. Protective shell hides the screen and small keyboard. It’s like those old phones more than anything else, really.”
“Great.” Jane rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you order us a pizza before we all get thrown in a cell.”
Dr. Evans smiled as he popped open the computer to reveal the small display. “As with many things it’s not what’s on the outside that matters quite as much as what’s inside.”
Rick hopped out of his bed and crossed the room. He took the computer from Dr. Evans and looked at the screen, tapping at it and on the keyboard. “What is all of this?”
“Information.”
“That’s kind of vague. What type of information?”
“I’m not entirely certain yet. But if this soldier gave it to you after our conversation with General Black and the soldier mentioned Damocles then it must have something here to help us.”
As Dr. Evans talked Rick continued to browse through the files on the device. His eyes widened as he reached a folder full of filenames that started to make sense. “These look like military bunker locations. They’re all marked as top secret.”
“Bunker locations?” Jane got up from her chair and circled around to look at the device alongside Rick and Dr. Evans. “What good does that do?”
“That’s just one small fraction of the information on this thing.” Rick closed the device and handed it back to Dr. Evans. “I bet that soldier dumped everything that might even be tangentially related to Damocles onto this. He probably stole it from their archives here.”
Dr. Evans nodded. “Agreed. I’ll look through it and see if I can find anything that’ll be immediately useful in our search. You two should figure out how we’re going to get out of here. I’m not entirely comfortable with using the General’s car.”
Rick shrugged. “The soldier said that would be the easiest thing to do. I’m inclined to believe him until we see otherwise.”
“Just be safe. Both of you.”
Rick and Jane nodded before Rick turned towards the door. “Come on, let’s look around a bit and see what kind of trouble we can get into.”
Jane rubbed her hands together and grinned. “Now you’re talking!”
***
While Dr. Evans toiled away on the uncomfortably small computer, Rick and Jane did their best to look like two normal people out for a stroll inside an underground military complex. The oldest part of the complex was larger than Rick had initially expected, with multiple buildings beyond the initial one that he had seen and that housed General Black’s office. The deeper sections of the complex were obviously newer and there were ones that were even farther underground than the st
ructure where he, Jane and Dr. Evans were being housed.
Cheyenne Mountain had never been originally intended as a place for civilians to be housed for long periods of time. Over the years, though, as the threat of global wars based on nuclear, chemical and biological attacks grew, the government revised some of its plans. Predictions based on civilian casualty numbers ranging from mild to extreme were created and a general guideline was drawn up that would be enacted should the situation warrant it.
At its most basic level this guideline directed military teams to secure and protect civilians that happened to fall within their local jurisdictions. For places like Nellis that had huge populations next door this directive didn’t work very well given that the civilian population could overwhelm and overrun the base. For Cheyenne Mountain and other underground locations, though, it worked much better.
So long as the situation didn’t require that the bases “button-up” they would remain open to collect as many people as they could hold. Once full, however, they would close their doors and keep anyone from moving in or out until the threat levels dropped. The Cheyenne Mountain Complex, while not near capacity, had other protocols to follow and thus would be closing in less than two days. Being equipped with enough food and water for the residents inside to wait things out for up to five years meant that Rick and Jane had to find a way out of the base and fast.
“Where are we? Haven’t we just gone deeper into the complex?” Rick turned around and looked at the multi-colored stripes painted on the wall. Different colors branched off into different tunnels though none of them were marked by name.
“I’m not sure. I think red means the hospital area.” Jane stopped and looked down a long tunnel. “Did we pass the hospital before?”
Rick shrugged. “I have no idea. It’s insane how deep this place goes.”
“I heard a couple of airmen talking when they were coming in the other day. They were going on about these huge limestone caverns beneath the complex that were filled with food and water. I guess that’s where General Black is going to get the supplies to keep everyone alive.”