by J. G. Martin
“Works for me.” She replied back with a matching grin. “Let’s go see what’s in the hole.”
She watched as he attached the climbing gear to a steel support pylon and prepared the ropes. After a brief lesson for her on how to rappel, he moved to the holes and jumped in. She could see his light in the inky darkness as it descended. After a brief hesitation she followed him down. At the bottom of the hole, the only light was from their headlamps. Fortunately they were very bright LED lights that cut easily through the darkness.
The beams of light revealed that the basement had suffered massive damage as well. Piles of rubble from the collapsed ceiling were everywhere and it looked as though a fire had come through and burned up anything flammable. Scorch marks covered the walls and the bare concrete floor. Piles of ash and puddles of plastic and metal indicated the location of desks or cabinets. Rora shuddered as her lamp passed over piles of bones, the survivors of the blasts who hadn’t been able to escape the fire.
They made their way carefully through the debris and wreckage following the blueprints on their wrist tablets. In the center of the building they found the concrete column that had provided the central support for the building. Within it was the secure elevator that would take them into the storage facility below. Hopefully it was still intact and still had power. The intelligence the general had provided indicated it was powered by a nuclear reactor buried deep within the facility so it should still be powered.
Derek cleared some fallen rubble from their path and they found themselves in front of the elevator doors. They were extremely heavy looking and looked like they were made from solid steel. There was some minor scorching but otherwise they seemed untouched. The keypad next to the doors was melted, but she didn’t have the code anyway. Using the flat bladed screwdriver on her multi-tool, Rora popped the melted cover off and exposed the guts underneath. She attached a cable from her tablet to a port in the keypad and started the access program. Good news, it was still powered.
Derek watched her impassively as she hacked into the access program for the elevators. She was never quite sure what he was thinking since he kept most thoughts to himself. He had certainly been there for her since her father died. His code of conduct, the Rules, was draconian but they made complete sense and were words to live by. His behavior was often cold hearted, like how he handled Kevin’s death at the airplane graveyard, but he seemed to be trying to do his best to help her. He was just incredibly cynical and jaded after years in the wasteland.
She typed while she thought, the ability to use all of her brain simultaneously coming in handy, and the keypad chimed suddenly as she gained access. Motors whirred to life and they could hear the elevator rising towards them. Derek unslung his M4 carbine and trained it on the doors. Rule # 15, always be prepared. He was somewhat predictable in his actions, but it had saved their lives several times.
The elevator stopped rising, and the doors slowly hissed open. Trapped air rushed out as the pressure in the elevator equalized. The light from the interior of the elevator flooded the darkened basement and momentarily blinded her. Hesitantly she followed Derek into the large elevator car. The interior was constructed from the same solid steel and had no ornamentation. It was completely sealed except for an access panel on the roof, but that was shut tight. The only other thing inside the elevator was the control panel with a handprint and eye scanner.
Rora needed Derek’s help to remove the cover of the panel so she could access the computer behind it. A few more minutes of hacking and she had control of the elevator. The doors hissed closed and they started to descend. The elevator descended so smoothly she couldn’t tell how fast they were moving and how far they were descending. But it took several minutes before the elevator stopped, so she assumed they were fairly deep underground.
The doors opened to reveal a small room with an airlock at the other side. Emergency lighting cast a dim light throughout the room. The walls were made of some sort of thick security glass, at least a foot thick. The floor and ceiling were solid concrete without any covering. There were security stations on the other side of the glass and when the facility was under normal operations would have housed armed guards. Video cameras and other sensors were housed in a bubble on the ceiling along with several circular vents.
When they exited the elevator, the doors hissed closed behind them and fans in the ceiling revved to life. The suit’s sensors showed that the air was literally being sucked out of the room. Rora watched as the oxygen levels dropped to almost zero before the fans stopped. Without the suit’s air supply, they would have been suffocated. The facility must be under some sort of lockdown and this was a security measure to protect against infiltration.
She made her way over to the control panel at the airlock and jacked in. A couple of minutes later she had hacked the airlock’s controls and the first door slid open. They stepped inside and waited as the door slid closed and decontamination procedures commenced. That sequence lasted about five minutes and then the interior door slid open. They exited the airlock cautiously and Derek took point.
Following the marked path on the diagram on the wrist tablet they headed towards the server room. She should be able to hack into a server and find where they had stored the command module. The hallways were solid concrete with no decorations or trim and the doors were all the same solid steel. They also turned and split without any semblance of a pattern. There were no indications or markings on the doors or hallways to let you know where they went or what was behind them. Without the diagram they would be hopelessly lost, which was probably the intent.
They had only gone for a few minutes when she heard a soft scrabbling noise behind them. It had been deathly quiet so far so the noise surprised her and she turned around. A large black shape struck Rora on her body and knocked her down. She screamed as snapping jaws tried to bite her face through the helmet. She fought to get free, but the weight of the beast kept her pinned down. Drool splattered on her face plate and she could see the maddened red eyes of the hungry beast looking right at her. She heard Derek cursing and managed to look over to where he was.
He was standing and struggling with what looked like a massive Doberman at least as big as she was. The dog had Derek’s left arm in its large jaws and was trying to rip the arm off. Derek had dropped his rifle to fend off the attack and was barely preventing being thrown around by the giant dog. She screamed again as she saw two more dogs come racing around a corner towards him. Even more terrifying was that none of the dogs were making a sound. They were simply trying to tear the two of them apart.
Derek punched the dog in the face repeatedly but it refused to let go. The other two leapt on his back dragging him to the ground. He vanished under a pile of fur and fangs. She could see flashes of white from his suit in the pile but couldn’t make out what was happening. She knew he was alive because she could hear him grunting and cursing over the radio as he struggled with the dogs. Rora tried to move the beast off of her but it wouldn’t budge and it resorted to trying to smash in her faceplate with its snout. Instead of a meaty thud there was a metallic crack when it struck her. Worried, she stuck both hands in the dog’s mouth and tried to hold the thing back.
Suddenly there was a blast of gunfire and then another and the pressure on her was relieved as the dog on top of her left. She looked up and saw Derek kneeling with his M4 carbine smoking in his hand. A dog lay dead in the hallway several feet away. She rolled over and checked to make sure she wasn’t hurt. The suit still had 100% integrity so she knew the dog hadn’t damaged it.
“Are you ok?” Derek asked her as he came over.
“Yeah, it just knocked the wind out of me.” She replied. “How about you?”
“I’m fine, but my tablet is scrap.” He said as he displayed the rushed tablet complete with bite marks.
“These things are made from scratchproof glass and a steel case, how did a dog bite through that?” Rora asked mystified.
“Let’s find out.�
�� Derek said and walked over to examine the dead dog.
He opened its mouth to reveal a set of steel jaws topped with razor sharp steel fangs. Rora gasped as she saw the modification. It looked as though the jaws had been completely removed and replaced with the steel contraptions. Derek whistled as he looked closer.
“Their vocal cords have been surgically cut.” He said shaking his head. “No wonder they didn’t bark. Someone was working on creating the perfect attack dog.”
“At least you scared them off with the gun.” Rora said.
“No, they were running away when I shot this one.” Derek replied. “Something must have called them back or scared them off.”
“Wait, what would have scared those things off?” She asked worriedly.
Before he could answer, a loud roar echoed down the corridor. With the twisting corridors it was almost impossible to tell where it was coming from or how far away. Derek clenched his carbine and began surveying the area. Rora unslung her carbine and got ready to shoot whatever was making that racket. The roars quickly got closer and sounded more and more excited.
“Why did you have to ask that question?” Derek joked, trying to relieve the tension.
A roar from behind them caused both of them to spin around. Rora gasped as she saw a large hairy shape materialize from an adjoining hallway and race towards them in an odd loping run. It had long arms that it was using to help it maneuver and run and a gaping maw full of sharp white teeth. She identified it as a gorilla from pictures she had seen as a child. But it was very large for a gorilla, standing almost seven feet tall.
Derek opened fire and she joined in. Their rounds struck the charging gorilla but it didn’t even slow down. It moved deceptively fast and was upon them before they could reload. Derek shoved her back and blocked the gorilla’s path. It struck him with a heavy thud and the two flew backwards knocking Rora to the side. They struggled, but the gorilla seemed to have superior strength and lifted Derek clear off the ground in a bear hug. It seemed intent on crushing him in the suit. She could hear him groaning as the gorilla squeezed tighter.
His arms were pinned to his side and even his enhanced strength wasn’t enough to break the beast’s grip. She reloaded and fired the entire clip into the gorilla’s back. Even if the rounds struck Derek the suit would supposedly prevent them from penetrating, but they didn’t faze the gorilla either. It roared deafeningly in the tight corridor and looked back at her. The beast must have loosened its grip because Derek pulled an arm free and grabbed for his sawed off shotgun. He pulled it free and stuffed it into the beast’s mouth when it turned its head back. He pulled both triggers and the monster’s head exploded spraying gore everywhere. The gorilla’s grip released and Derek pulled free as the huge headless body slumped to the ground.
“What is going on here?” Derek groaned as he tried to pop his spine back into place.
“I thought this was a research facility?” Rora asked.
“It’s the CIA; they could have been doing anything down here.” Derek told her cynically. “I’m more concerned with how many more of these things there could be.”
“Let’s just get the part and get out of here.” She suggested.
“I agree, but I am curious what they were doing here.” Derek replied. “Rule # 20, know your enemy. The Collective must have been involved with this or at least aware of it. I want to know what I might be up against in the future.”
“Fine, but make it quick.” Rora agreed. “We don’t want those dogs to come back.”
“I doubt they will. We killed the thing they were afraid of, so I think it will be a while before they get up the courage to attack us again.” He said.
“Let’s not take any chances.” She argued. “We should move one before anything else shows up.”
He didn’t reply as he examined the body of the dead gorilla. Derek prodded the body with his carbine barrel and then got down to look at it closely. He suddenly got real close to the body and started pulling aside hair.
“Whoa. This thing has armor plates surgically attached. That’s why the rifle rounds had no effect on it. Somebody has done some crazy experiments with animals here.” Derek said.
“Wait.” Rora replied as a thought hit her. “What have these things been eating for fifteen years?”
“Good question.” Derek agreed. “But it’s not something we can worry about. We need to get that part and get out of here like you said. Lead on to the server room.”
That was when Rora noticed that her tablet wasn’t working anymore. The screen was cracked and blank. It must have been damaged when the charging gorilla had knocked her into the wall. Seeing her frown, Derek moved over to look at it. He shook his head and sighed.
“How are we going to find our way through this maze without the tablets?” Rora asked him.
“No idea, but that’s why rule #16 is don’t rely on technology. It always lets you down when you need it.” Derek replied.
“A lot of good that rule does us now.” She snapped back.
“Come on. Use that magnificent brain of yours.” Derek said jovially. “I bet you memorized the map. You don’t need the computer.”
“That’s true.” She agreed. “But I’m not sure exactly where we are right now.”
“Hmm. If we make a few turns can’t you overlay that on the map in your head to figure out where we are?” Derek asked.
“I think that might actually work.” She responded in surprise.
Every time she started to think of him as a big dumb jock he surprised her. He had recognized her abilities and figured out a solution to utilize them to resolve their problem. In fact, many of his solutions to escaping the traps set for them had involved clever ruses or plans. The SuPERHUMAAN improvements accounted for some of that, but he must have been clever before that. She needed to remember not to underestimate him.
Using the technique he had suggested, Rora determined their location and got them back on track. She followed the directions from the map in her memory and led them to the server room. Like all the other doors it was completely unmarked. It too had a keypad and badge reader. This time she didn’t have the wrist tablet to help her hack it. They would have to open the door through more common means. She turned to Derek to ask for a suggestion and found him already holding up a small block of C4 explosives.
“Way ahead of you.” He said and moved to the door. “I came prepared.”
“I know, rule #15.” She replied, rolling her eyes.
“Roll your eyes if you want, but this bit of explosives will do what your broken tablet can’t.” He called over his shoulder.
How had he known she had rolled her eyes, he couldn’t see her. Sometimes he was so frustrating because he always seemed to be right. That was getting really old. Just once she wanted to see him be wrong. The only problem was that it would probably mean they both died. Maybe that piece of karmic justice could wait.
Derek wired the door with the explosive and pulled her around the corner. After a few seconds the charge blew with a loud boom that echoed down the hallways. When they came back around the corner, the door was blown open and hanging on by one hinge. Inside was a dimly lit room filled to the brim with servers. Rora immediately went to the nearest one and opened it. She needed to find the server that accessed the data storage for the files.
This server was empty, maybe it hadn’t been used yet? She moved to the next one and then the next one. They were all empty, reset to factory specs waiting to be used. A brief search of random servers turned up the same thing on every server. It was like they had been set up and then never used. What was going on here?
“Derek, they are all useless.” She informed him.
“What do you mean?” He asked, confused.
“They are all empty, completely reset to factory specs.” She explained. “There isn’t any data on them.”
He cursed and said. “It was probably a security measure. The servers probably wiped themselves after a set amount of time i
f no one logged in and provided a security code. Now what do we do?”
Rora pondered that for minute before replying. “I have an idea. Something has to be running the environmental system. Use your thermal setting to look for a server putting out more heat than the others.”
“Okay, but what good will that do?” Derek asked.
“If we can access that, then maybe I can figure out where the storage rooms are. I bet they are still climate controlled.” Rora answered.
They searched the server room until they found one server in the back that was much hotter than the others, indicating it was in use. Opening it up, Rora discovered she was right and it was controlling the environmental system. She didn’t find any climate controlled rooms, but she did find something very interesting.
“Look at this.” She told Derek. “This room is using a lot of power and seems to be heated. Everything else is shut down, but this room looks like it is in use.”
“Let’s go check it out and see what’s there. Maybe it will give us a clue about where the storage rooms are.” Derek said.
“Do you really think so?” She asked.
“No, but it’s the only lead we have. So…” Derek replied with a shrug.
“Right. Lead the way; I’ll give you directions as we go.” She said.
Chapter 33
June 24, 2029
Inside CIA HQ at McLean, VA
Rora directed him to the only room that seemed to be in use and Derek paused outside the door. He pressed his ear to the door, but heard nothing. The rooms were probably soundproofed for security purposes. He checked the door and remarkably it was unlocked. Readying his carbine he prepared to enter and Rora did the same. After a countdown from three he burst inside.
The sight inside made Derek pull up short and Rora practically collided with him. They found themselves in a large laboratory filled with animal cages set haphazardly on every surface. Animals of all kinds filled the various cages and they started howling or cawing or barking at the sudden entrance. The smell of all of the animal feces must have been awful; thank goodness they were sealed in the suits. Around the cages were pages and pages of notes and pieces of medical equipment. Lab carts covered in devices and junk sat at random places throughout the mess. Derek heard movement and trained his carbine on a figure that emerged from the chaos.