It was similar to what they had encountered on the south staircase, a jumbled pile of whatever furniture and equipment seemed to be at hand. Unlike the last one, however, this one appeared to have been designed to prevent access to the third level and seemed to have spilled out into the staircase itself by accident. It would have been an easy enough task to climb the outer edge and continue upward on the stairs had they wanted to do so. Their quarry had gone through the hole before them and standard operating procedure said that you never left an enemy at your back, particularly one you knew next to nothing about, if you could help it. Cade was going to order them through the barricade; Olsen just knew it.
“I don’t like the idea of that thing running around in the darkness behind us. It went through that hole for a reason and right now I’m a bit tired of constantly being in the dark about what’s going on,†said Cade, confirming Olsen’s hunch. “It’s time to step things up. We’re going in after it.â€
Cade would go first, with Riley playing rear-guard. Once they were all through the barrier they would form up into their respective squads, ready for whatever might be waiting for them on the other side.
Squatting down, Cade carefully examined the opening in front of him. It looked like something had burrowed its way through the pile of debris; the opening was roughly circular and the tunnel beyond maintained its shape and size for at least several feet. He could see a faint sheen of light coming from the other side, so he knew the tunnel wasn’t very long. It was easily wide enough to admit a man and Cade knew he could get through it without much difficulty, though he didn’t like the idea that he’d have several hundred pounds of additional debris hanging over his head while he made the trip. A thick, cloying stench hung about the entire barricade, a stench Cade recognized, and he knew it wouldn’t be pleasant on the other side.
No sense in worrying about what couldn’t be helped though.
“Ready?†Cade asked and Riley nodded. Taking a deep breath, Cade entered the tunnel.
Five minutes later he radioed to his executive officer that he was clear and Riley nodded to Olsen, indicating it was his turn.
One by one the rest of the team slipped through the hole in the barricade and emerged in-to the mouth of hell.
What they saw there made them all but forget the shadowy form they had been following, which perhaps had been its very intention.
Once a cafeteria, the room beyond was now an abattoir, with blood and limbs and bodies scattered throughout like so much discarded trash. Several of the dead lay fallen against the interior side of the barricade itself, their positions making it obvious that they had died in defense of the breach. The members of Echo were forced to clamber over them to get inside the room, an experience none of them wanted to repeat in the near future.
The place stank of decomposition. The bodies were grotesquely swollen, so much so that it was often hard to tell if the victims were male or female, their facial and body features bulging and indistinguishable from corpse to corpse. All of them were dressed in the same blue jumpsuits found on the first body, complete with the Eden patch, confirming Cade’s earlier guess that it was the standard uniform for those involved in the project.
The team moved cautiously into the room, knowing in the back of their minds that they’d been led to this place intentionally. It was immediately obvious that the room’s previous inhabitants had never stood a chance against whatever it was they’d made a stand against. Many of them had weapons in hand or lying nearby, but the vast majority of those were nothing more dangerous than sharpened kitchen knives and the occasional utility hatchet. There were only two handguns amongst them all and one of those was a snub-nosed revolver that looked like it had seen its better days thirty years before.
Clearly the weapons had done them little good, yet they had stood their ground and faced whatever it was rather than retreat to some other section of the complex. That suggested to Olsen that they’d known they hadn’t had any choice; fight now or fight later, it didn’t make any difference. Like the man they’d found frozen in the freezer, this group had been just as resigned to their fate apparently, though they had at least chosen to go down fighting.
Why hadn’t they called for help? Olsen wondered. What hadn’t they abandoned the base and made a run for it across the desert? It would have been difficult but certainly not impossible. Vargas had made it. It just didn’t make any sense that they would have chosen to face off against an obviously superior foe.
His musings were interrupted by a call from Ortega, who had found something of interest on the other side of the room. Olsen walked over and as he drew close he could see that it was a man’s body, spread-eagled on a table. Unlike the rest of the bodies in the room, this one had been methodically dissected rather than torn haphazardly limb from limb. The man’s chest had been split down the middle and then carefully opened up. His internal organs had been removed; they were all now neatly arranged at the man’s feet, as if briefly studied and then put to one side for later consideration.
“Why would someone do this?†Ortega asked and in his voice Olsen could hear the hours of tension beginning to take their toll. Death was one thing; being dissected afterwards was entirely another.
Olsen could understand how he felt. First the odd tableau in the subway car and now this, both events seemed to be designed for maximum shock value, as if their architect was trying to keep them off balance and uneasy rather than focused on their investigation.
They gave the room a thorough search, including the bodies of the dead. Afterward all they had to show for it were a few magnetic passcards, like those used as hotel room keys.
No one them were marked and there was no way of knowing what they were for, but Olsen figured it couldn’t hurt to take them along in case they found a use for them later.
Riley passed through the room with his digital camera, taking pictures of the dead in case they could use recognition software later to reconstruct what they had looked like, and once he was finished Cade led the group away from the carnage in the cafeteria to the rear doors on the far side of the room.
Olsen breathed a sigh of relief as he passed into the hallway beyond, happy to be away from the dead and the atmosphere surrounding them.
The corridor was bisected by three others, each of which had a series of rooms on both sides of the hall. Echo searched them one by one, conscious that their enemy had passed this way before them and might be waiting in ambush anywhere up ahead.
The rooms were nothing more than a small living area with a desk, nightstand and a bed.
A small television hung from a wall stand in the corner of each. Photos hung in a few of the rooms, but every single one of them was a landscape shot, none were of family or loved ones. More than a few of the rooms had plaques quoting Bible verses hung on the walls and one even had a prie dieu in the corner. Small closets set next to the bed seemed to be the only storage areas available and from the cut of the various blue jumpsuits that had been left behind inside them, the rooms seemed about evenly divided between male and female occupants.
Simple and plainly decorated, the rooms could have been straight out your typical college dorm just before the incoming class took up residence.
Yet there was something about them that bothered Olsen and it took him a bit before he figured out what it was.
There wasn’t a single computer or telephone in sight.
He brought it to Cade’s attention. “There’s no way for these people to reach anyone on the outside. No computer means no email. No telephone means no personal calls, no way of staying in touch with anyone. Who lives like that?â€
Cade thought about it for a minute. “It’s really not that uncommon, is it? I know of plenty of high tech companies who wouldn’t bat an eye at such restrictions. Keeping outside communications to a mini
mum greatly reduces the possibility of that someone might be tempted to walk off with a couple million dollars worth of intellectual property.â€
“Yeah, but have you seen anything that would give you the idea that these people were involved in cutting edge industrial research? So far all we’ve got is a missing preacher who took his flock into the desert and hid them away in an abandoned military base for heaven knows what.â€
Cade reminded him that they’d probably only seen the tip of the iceberg at this point and Olsen couldn’t argue with that, but he was still unsettled. He had this mental image of a bunch of monks hiding in the wastelands while their clearly whacked-out leader tries to draw down the apocalypse. He didn’t like fanatics, religious or otherwise, and everything here seemed to scream that to him, from the setting to the inhabitants’ decision not to abandon the place when things clearly went to hell.
There was a lot here that wasn’t making sense.
But one thing was certain, at least.
This place was starting to get to him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MIRROR PLAY
It took Echo almost three hours to properly clear and search the twenty-five rooms they found in that intersecting set of corridors and by the time they were done Cade was ready to call it quits for the day. The men were tired and tense and he knew it was at that point that mistakes began to happen. They needed some hot grub and some down time to return them to their usual focused readiness. The only problem was finding a secure place to bunk down for the night, someplace that was defensible in case their enemy chose to come at them while they rested.
The individual living quarters were too small and didn’t offer a back door. Using any of them would effectively corner the unit and Cade was far too good a tactician to allow that to happen unless there was no other choice. On the other hand the cafeteria, while the right size and arrangement, wouldn’t do either, as the presence of the dead would prevent any of them from getting the rest and relaxation they needed to return to top form.
Fortunately, there was another option.
On the far side of the dormitory, as his men were calling this set of interconnected corridors, they discovered another room about the size of the cafeteria. Filled with a variety of exercise equipment, including treadmills, Nautilus machines, and free weights, it obviously served as the facility’s exercise facility. The rear wall was made entirely of glass and overlooked a second room that held an Olympic-size swimming pool. Doors on the right and left of the pool room led to a men’s and a women’s locker room respectively. Beyond the pool, the locker rooms connected to a central corridor that held the stairwell and elevator to the other levels.
It was exactly what Cade had been looking for. They could hole up in the pool room and have a clear view of the fitness center, so nothing could sneak up on them from that direction.
A guard posted in either of the locker rooms could see into the central corridor and the pool room at the same time, keeping their rear secure. Either direction gave them a means of retreat. Even if the enemy came at them from both directions at once, Cade was confident that they could fight their way out.
After a complete search of the area, he let his men know that they would be bunking down for the night and arranged a watch schedule that gave them all at least six hours of rest while still allowing him to keep two men on guard duty at any given time. Chen and Duncan had first watch and he placed one of them in the corner by the glass wall looking out into the fitness room and the other was stationed by the rear door of the men’s locker room looking down the central corridor toward the elevator and stairs.
Satisfied with the arrangements, Cade found a spot of his own and dug through the Meals-Ready-To-Eat, or MREs, in his pack, hoping he had something other than Beef Stroganoff.
* * *
Riley had third watch. Callavechio shook him awake as he returned to grab some addition-al rest and Riley then relieved Ortega from his position by the locker room door. He was shar-ing a watch period with Olsen and he took a moment to check in with him by radio. Both of them were experienced veterans and there was no chance that they would be so derelict as to fall asleep while on duty, but they both knew a friendly voice in the face of danger could often make even the most tedious of jobs more bearable, so they agreed to contact each other every fifteen minutes to remain focused and alert.
The emergency lights were on in the pool room and the corridor leading to the elevator, but the locker room itself was in darkness and Riley was confident that by sitting just back from the door he had propped open he couldn’t be seen by anyone approaching from that direction.
The time passed slowly. Riley kept alert by constantly changing his focus of attention; first he’d watch the staircase, then the doors to the elevator, then the corridor leading back in-to fitness area, and so on. Staring at one thing for too long was often what caused more junior soldiers to lull themselves to sleep, Riley had learned, and he had long ago devised little tricks and methods like this to keep that from happening.
Which was why he was focused in the other direction when a sound came out of the darkness of the locker room behind him.
Riley turned, aiming the muzzle of his Mossberg in that direction as he did so, and listened.
Nothing.
Remembering the shadowy form that had escaped from them on the staircase earlier that afternoon, Riley climbed slowly to his feet, his attention locked on the thin shaft of light that shone into the locker room proper from the doorway, his ears straining as he tried to hear it again.
Only silence greeted him.
He had just about convinced himself that he had imagined it when it came again.
The gentle sound of a footfall.
That did it. “Hey Nick, you out there?†Riley whispered into his mike.
The response was immediate, “Yeah?â€
“Heard something in the locker room. I’m gonna check it out.â€
“Roger that. Touch back in two or I’m gonna call out the troops.
“Sounds good. Riley out.â€
He flipped the switch of the light clamped to the barrel of his shotgun and moved cautiously into the locker room proper.
The first portion of the room was devoted to a changing area, U-shaped with a double row of lockers running around the outside edge. He shone the light around, confirming his first impression that the room was empty. Beyond the changing area were a set of shower stalls on both sides which led to a single row of sinks bolted to the rear wall.
Even in the dim light coming from the front entrance, Riley could see that there was someone standing in front of the sinks.
“Who’s there?†he demanded, shining his light directly onto the figure.
The man had his back to Riley, leaning with both of his hands on the sink before him, but Riley could tell it was Cade, could see his scarred face and eye patch in the mirror above the sink. In response to the challenge, Cade glanced up and raised a hand to ward off the light reflecting from the glass but didn’t say anything.
“Sorry, boss,†Riley said, aiming his light at the floor so it wouldn’t be in his commander€™s eyes anymore. “Didn’t see come down the hall past me.â€
Cade looked back down at the floor. “I came in the other way.â€
Riley frowned and then remembered there was another entrance into the locker room from the front of the fitness center; Cade must have used that. The Knight Commander sounded tired; his voice had that same harshness to it that he’d had when he’d first come out of the hospital. “Are you all right?â€
Cade didn’t reply.
Riley stood there for another moment, waiting for his answer. When it was clear he wasn’t going to give one, Riley decided he’d best get back to his post.
He turned and walked back toward the entrance to the locker room, k
eying his mike as he did so. “It’s clear, Olsen,†he said. “Turns out it was just Cade. Guess he couldn’t sleep.†He saw no need to mention his commander’s odd behavior, even to his teammate. Some things were just better left unsaid.
Behind him, in the darkness, Cade said something.
“Hold one,†he said into the mike and turned back to face his commanding officer.
“Sorry, say that again.â€
“Where did Vargas go?â€
He must be more tired than I thought, Riley said to himself, but he answered the question nonetheless. “He’s with the medics at Ravensgate, where we left him.â€
His commander seemed to think that one over and then asked, “Will he be returning to Eden?â€
Eden? Oh, right. The inscription over the door; the patches on the uniform. “Your guess is as good as mine, boss, but I really doubt it.â€
Cade finally looked up, catching Riley’s stare in the surface of the mirror. His good eye seemed to gleam strangely in the dim light and there seemed to be something subtly wrong with his face, but Riley couldn’t quite put his finger on just what it was. Cade’s next question was even stranger than his first few.
“Will you take me to him, then?†he asked.
* * *
On the other side of the fitness center, Olsen lowered the volume on his radio and turned his attention back to watching the front entrance. Riley seemed to have things under control, so Olsen felt there was no need to wake up the troops. As he had done repeatedly since he’d started his watch, he glanced behind him at the others resting peacefully in the semi-darkness, unconsciously mimicking Riley’s habit, which was how he spotted Cade lying fast asleep on the floor between Davis and Chen.
If Cade’s asleep, then who…
He was up and moving before the thought had fully formed, racing between the rows of fitness equipment for the entrance to the locker room that he knew was against the far wall.
Even as he ran he was shouting at the others and trying to raise Riley on the radio without success.
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