"I'm here for a surprise inspection of the facility, to be completed with all due haste by the time the sun rises."
Frank and James just stared at each other, both of them looking both horrified and angry. This one surprise inspection had cost them nearly 3 months of work, and they were going to have to spend another 3 months starting over from the beginning.
"We have no orders for an inspection at this time."
"What part of 'surprise' do you not understand? I have the official orders with me."
There was a long moment of silence as the people inside the base considered the situation. They finally responded after an uncomfortably long silence.
"We'll have someone come out to the vehicle to inspect the orders. Until then you are to exit the vehicle and keep your hands in full view of the base cameras. Any moves and we will shoot your ass dead before you can wonder how many bullets you'll be filled with."
Clearly the communications officer on the other side had been ticked about the earlier comment by the surprise inspection officer, based on how he chose to word his response. After a moment a man exited the compound and searched the vehicle, all while eyeing the inspector suspiciously. 2 more stood by the gate with their weapons drawn and aimed at the inspector.
As Frank and James watched from the truck, a call came over James' cell phone. The cell phone was one of their burner phones, and only one person had the number.
"Hello?" James asked as soon as he answered. After a moment he hung up.
"What was it?" Frank asked.
"We've been recalled by the boss."
"Why?"
"That surprise inspector over there is in his pocket. I guess we lucked out this time."
"Yeah, lucked out of 2.5 months of our lives."
"Hey I'm not happy either. But I am glad we don't have to continue for another 2.5 months at least."
"Yeah I guess."
"Right, well, we have to go get the camera out and replace it with the old one."
"Fine, let's just get going."
"We'll have to wait until the surprise inspector is inside and their attention is focused on him."
"Well let's get nearby so we can finish as fast as possible."
With that they both left the truck to stretch their legs for a bit while they waited on the inspector to enter the compound and collect the information they'd basically failed to.
Chapter 17:
Takeover Plans
"So how are we gonna do this then?" James asked. He was sitting at a round wooden table with a grand golden inlay depicting the solar system. To his right was Frank, sitting in another of the grandiose wooden chairs that were plated with inlayed golden designs. No 2 chairs were of the same design, and yet the theme fit the same as the table. Clearly, someone had spent a lot of money on the set.
To James' left was a girl with pasty white skin and short blonde hair. She had strikingly bright and deep blue eyes. Her frame was very small, measuring in at a height of only 5 feet 2 inches tall. Next to her was another girl who could almost pass as her twin if it weren't for her shining green eyes.
Next to that girl were 2 asian men. The first had short dirty brown hair and a small frame similar to the girls. The other was a hulking monster of a man like Frank. But whereas Frank appeared to be made of solid muscle with nothing else under his skin, this man appeared to be a normal human just enlarged to impossible sizes.
The final member of the table was the only one who actually appeared to be normal in every way. He had sandy blonde hair cut so it hung loosely around his head. He had a pair of generic half-rimmed glasses covering his muddy brown, seemingly dead eyes. He wore a white tshirt with a light blue collar and a simple pair of sweatpants. But perhaps the most shocking feature was the wheelchair he was confined to.
"We'll leave that to our military expert, Captain Dawn." The man in the wheelchair said, pointing to the girl with the shining blue eyes. "What are your thoughts on how to take this place?"
"It's former Captain. I haven't thought of myself by my military title since I was discharged." Dawn said.
"Very well, Ms. Dawn. How do we proceed?" Said the smaller Chinese man as he glared at Dawn. She glared back and he had to avert his eyes from her gaze.
"Well, Mr. Shi, I suggest that we need some more equipment first. Mr. Frank here is-"
"I told you to drop the 'mister', so do it." Frank said without hesitation.
"Frank here is one of our biggest guys, right along side your brother there. If we get them a full set of body armor, we can storm the base with them leading us. And by full set I mean full protection, including the arms and legs and head.
Then we have my sister at the back. She's got training with the Seals, so she'll be the best suited to watch our back and prevent stealth assaults on our team from the rear. I'll be in the middle directing everything and James will guide us through the facility and provide technical support. Now since we all have combat training of some form or other we should be able to clear the base effectively in around 15 minutes, based on the size from the plans you've given us.
After that we'll have to lock the base down. That will be the hardest part. The technology there is old and many of the systems don't work anymore. As James noted from their surveillance, the 5 foot thick solid steel door no longer closes. While that gives us an easy in, it makes our job of locking ourselves in even tougher.
Beyond that we'll need radiation suits to protect us on our exit after we finish the plan. The two front men will be the hardest to equip because of their massive size."
"Alright. How many will be between us and the control room?" the man in the wheelchair asked.
"39 people if we go in at noon. Unfortunately as soon as we breach the front gate the whole base will be on us in under a minute. They'll be fully equipped to gear up and get out in under 30 seconds and then the small size makes travel time almost non-existent."
"So what path will we be taking?" James asked.
"Well, that's up to you. Base protocol is to lock down the elevators and, once the primary defense squad makes first contact, to lock down the stair well entrances to any access not approved by the commander. They'll be using video cameras to verify the identities of everyone attempting to access the doors.
If you are up to it, we can get the elevators back online through some clever hacking of the console. They have a direct hardline to their control computer. If not, we'll have to take along explosives to blow the doors open. The doors electronics have a mechanism to sever the connection at a command from the control room. And the doors locking mechanisms are mechanically based, so when severed they'll stay locked until the electricity is restored to the operating motors."
"Well, I've never hacked a system that old before. I should be able to do it, but the old technology is lost on the modern world so it'll be tougher than normal. If I knew the elevator specs I could pull off a hardware hack, giving me control of the systems that way. But that method might fry the elevator systems completely. I say we go through the doors." James said.
"Well, that will take more time, but if we fry the elevator we'll end up going that route anyway. So in that case we'll need a full pound of C4 for each door. There are 4 doors between us and the control room outer door. It uses a much more solid construction and we'll need to blow through the concrete and rebar wall to its side to get in. But if we do that we have to make sure there's no living person left on base to play hero and stop us."
"Meaning we'll be killing them all." The man in the wheelchair said. "I hate it has to come to that, but whatever is necessary we'll do it."
"So if we're caught we'll add mass killing to our rap sheet when we're thrown in hell? That's great." said Dawn's sister. "Y'all had better be glad I'm coming along to save your asses from the fire."
"Yes, we're glad to have your experience along." the man in the wheelchair said. "Anything else you need to pull this off Dawn?"
"We'll need to get some old school computer equipmen
t to hack the systems with. The operation computers still run on those old 8 inch floppy disks, so we need a way to get into that in order to complete the operation. James can tell you what you'll need."
"I'll get a list together by this weekend. That tech is so old that it's impossible to find on the internet so I'll have to go scrounging through some old contact lists to find what I need." James said after a moments thought. All eyes were on him as he began.
"Very well. Then let's get the stuff we need and we'll re-convene here in 2 weeks to finish our plans. James, you'll have however much money you need to buy that equipment, so when you have a list let me know."
"Aye. It won't be too expensive. That old tech can't even qualify as an antique because of its tendency to break down every other use. But that also makes it harder to find. If nothing exists I'll have to start making things from scratch. I have a guy who has plans for the hardware so that won't be a problem, but it will cost time."
"Very well. Get on it and get me info through our private network. I'll expect to have some timeline from you on acquiring the hardware by Friday."
"On it."
With that all the people got up to leave and the man in the wheelchair wheeled himself slowly over to the sink to grab a glass of water.
##########
"What have the geeks got for us?" asked officer Dan as a lab tech approached him.
"We've managed to identify all 5 DNA specimens left at the scene of the Warrens Plantation." the tech responded as he opened his tablet computer.
"Three of them belong to the Warrens, no surprise there. The fourth belonged to Daniel Penale, the rapist who's wanted for murdering his youngest daughter during a rape gone wrong. The entire state is after this guy but for the last 9 months he's eluded the police with exceptional ease. Dental records confirmed the identity.
The fifth is one we were never expecting. It belongs to a young girl named Emily Dawson."
"Why's that name sound familiar?"
"Because her father, Ronnie Dawson, was found dead at WestWell Academy after attempting to rape a student on campus. Emily has been missing for a few years now and her father claimed to have been on the search for her. After his death their home was searched and the blood of both Emily and her mother was found underneath the wallpaper and a gun containing dried blood covering parts of it was found underneath a pillow.
It was determined that he'd killed both of them after having been raping and beating them for years."
"So this Emily is dead?"
"We thought so. But not anymore. First of all we found a computer with recording equipment on it. It was set to record all the doors to the plantation home. We extracted footage for the last 6 months from the hard drive and caught this footage."
The lab tech brought up the footage on his tablet and played it through. It was surprisingly high quality video and it showed a young girl dressed in a black outfit leaving the front door only a minute before police arrived.
"We've been able to determine the person leaving is most likely female. And that's not all."
"What is it?" Dan asked, sensing the uneasiness of the lab tech.
"We think that Emily is the girl who Ronnie Dawson tried to rape at WestWell."
"But I thought her name was Max?"
"It was. But we pulled up pictures of Emily and Maximiliana and ran them through facial recognition."
The tech took the tablet back and entered a few commands before handing it back to Dan. There on the screen was a picture of Emily, taken when she was 13 for a school event, and a picture of Max, taken after the incident where she'd nearly been killed on campus. The match percentage between the 2 was 83%.
Not that it was needed. It was obvious they were the same person. Right down to the cold, dead eyes they both displayed.
"Alright. Thanks for this. Print this out and we'll go get a warrant."
"Roger sir."
Chapter 18:
Questions
Max sat in a corner of her dorm room staring at the wall. It had been over 3 months since the incident at the Warrens Plantation and she hadn't been out of her dorm room except for classes and work since then. She hadn't been looking for any more targets or even making plans. All she did off campus was her usual jobs, but even then she was subdued. The demeanor and speed she'd displayed since gaining her powers had dissipated and she was acting like a normal person while on the job again.
The only time she ever felt any better than she did now was when she was sleeping. Milia had said that when she was inside the landscape of her mind they both shared their feelings. But with every passing day Max had a harder and harder time sleeping. It was like a barrier of emotion that wanted to keep her in the waking realm where she would feel the full effect of her misery. At times she wished that emotions were actually real so she could just kill them. At other times she knew that one way to stop feeling these emotions was to end her life.
But she couldn't do that. Even if she didn't want to live, Milia did. Milia didn't deserve to be another victim of Max's despair. So day after day Max trudged onwards, if only for Milia. On the weekends Max would allow Milia to roam around while she wasn't at work. And Max could sense inside their mind that Milia was right about her feeling depression when she was in control of their body.
But Milia seemed to be trying her best to overcome those feelings. She forced herself to go outside and spend time in the sun. Or the rain if it was a rainy day. But Max seemed to be the opposite of Milia. Max would just wallow around her room and occasionally cry.
As Max was just starting to cry she heard a knock at the door. She took a minute to compose herself and wipe the tears off of her face. She put on a fake smile just as another knock sounded against the door, this one sounding much angrier than the last. Max ignored it and took a few moments to finish cleaning herself up before answering the door.
As soon as she opened it she knew something was wrong. There in front of her were 2 police officers and the school headmaster. They entered without asking any questions and one police officer tried to lead Max out of the room. Max dug her heels into the ground and turned to look at them.
"What's going on here?" She asked, clearly not in the mood to have her privacy invaded.
"We have a warrant to search the premises. And we require that you leave while we perform the search." said the officer.
"If that's so then let me see it." Max challenged.
"Young lady, you are 17 years old. We do not have to show you the warrant. I've seen it for myself and will be assisting the authorities in the search. Now leave as you're told to or we will force you to leave." the headmaster stated.
Max huffed at that but decided to leave the room. She didn't feel like dealing with assholes. Not when all she wanted to do was cry herself to sleep.
She left and pointedly slammed the door shut behind her. She went to the door to her dorm room wing and sat in the dorm lobby area. No one was around so she decided she could take a nap on one of the couches there.
After she reached the couch she laid down to rest and closed her eyes. But she never did get to sleep. In an instant the officers came busting through the door with their weapons drawn. They started yelling at Max. A moment later 3 more officers entered from the main hall door with their weapons drawn as well.
Max thought about either attacking or running but she realized she was in a bind. She wasn't bulletproof after all. So she followed their orders as they roughly slammed her into the ground and cuffed her hands behind her back. Then the grabbed her by her hair to pick her up to her feet before shoving her through the door as fast as they could.
##########
Max sat in the interrogation room with her hands cuffed to the table. She'd been in there for at least a day now with no one coming to talk to her. While she could break out if she wanted, she would prefer to not try. After all they would think she was guilty if she did. Though she couldn't for the life of her figure out why they'd even arrested her in the first place
. As she was trying to think of any reason for them to arrest her, the door opened.
In walked the last man Max thought she'd ever see again. Special Agent Collins of the FBI. Max glared at the man. The last time he'd visited her she'd ended up with a headache from his persistent attitude. She doubted this would be any better.
"Miss Dawson?" Collins asked. If glares could kill, Max's glare would have destroyed the entire city. Or created a black hole, Collins couldn't figure out which as he stumbled backwards from the glare. The pure, unbridled rage that was streaming from them like energy from a solar flare caused the entire room to go cold and even the people watching the interrogation on the other side of the one-way mirror felt like they were going to collapse from heart attacks. Half of them looked away and one even chucked his stomach contents into a nearby trash can.
"My. Name." Max began, with more venom in her voice than even she thought she could muster at that moment. "Is. Max."
'Hey Hey back off him. You never legally had our name changed.' Milia said inside Max's head. Max spat back something incoherent at her and Milia responded by slapping herself, which had the effect of sending an unpleasant electrical tingle across Max's cheek. After that Max settled down a bit, but still glared at the man in the room with her.
Eventually Agent Collins managed to steel himself against the glare and sat down. As he did he placed a folder on the desk between him and Max.
"Very well, Max." Collins said, placing special emphasis on her name, as if he didn't believe her. He opened the folder and grabbed a few pictures from the file.
"We found these in your room." He said showing a picture to Max. Max froze as she looked at it. It was her uniform. The one she wore back when she had begun her killing spree.
"And we have this." Collins continued with another picture. This one showed Max in a jail cell, standing in front of one of the inmates. Max instantly recalled the incident and thought back to it. As she did her depression hit her in the face like a flying sack of bricks. She distantly wondered who the man was and a part of her felt a need to get to know the man better. To humanize him, so his death would have even more of an impact on her.
Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) Page 10