Table of Contents
Title Page
All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
About the Author
SLAVES OF PANGAEA
By Ross Henderson
PUBLISHED BY:
Black Capsule Publishing
Copyright © 2016
http://rosshhenderson.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real names, places, or events are purely coincidental, and should not be construed as being real.
No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner, except as allowable under “fair use,” without the express written permission of the author.
Chapter 1
Nick Wolfe walked in on four men waiting for trouble in an empty hotel room.
He had taken all possible precautions and done as much research as he could under the circumstances. Wolfe had hacked into the hotel logs to see where Dr. Otto Von Huff was registered. He was ready to question the doctor and, if possible, steal his blueprint for a new kind of nanobot. Wolfe was ready, but after walking in dressed in a hotel uniform with a stack of towels, saw the four men. He wasn’t ready to give them any trouble yet, so he turned to walk out of the room. One of the men yelled for a drink. “I’ll call room service,” Nick replied in his best Castilian Spanish accent.
“You don’t look Mexican,” commented the thirsty agent.
“I am from Spain.”
“So?”
“It is in Europe. Different from Mexico.”
Another agent piped in, turning his head slightly toward the large brute in the middle but keeping his eyes on Wolfe, “How’d they let you on the team, Carter?”
“I’m good at beating people up.”
By now Nick was getting tired of explaining the difference between Spanish-speakers in Europe and those in Central America, and knew he was already becoming memorable to these men on an otherwise uneventful day.
So he responded to the man known to him only as “Carter.”
“Let’s see.”
He quickly produced a pistol with a silencer from his neatly folded stack of towels and shot two of the four men: the man who questioned Carter’s credentials was shot in the head. The second man was looking at his TeleCommunicator, or TC, catching up on the news of the day. He looked up just in time to be shot between the eyes.
Wolfe closed the door and stood in front of Carter and the other survivor. Carter, for his part, looked exceptionally capable of beating people up. He was large, about 6 feet, 2 inches, and about 320 pounds. Most of it was muscle, but he still moved slowly.
Carter’s friend was a thinner man, but he didn’t move much at all. Wolfe suspected he was holding something back. Carter started toward him.
“So you’re going to shoot me now? I thought you wanted to see if I can fight.”
Nick replied, “Sure. Why not?”
“How do I know you’re not going to shoot me?”
Without saying a word, Nick emptied his gun into the chest and head of Carter’s silent associate, then pulled the trigger a few more times so Carter could hear it click. Wolfe’s victim did not move, but his robotic arm waved for a few seconds afterward in front of his bloody face before sticking in that position, as if the order to protect the head came just a little too late.
As Carter got up, Nick was already starting to regret his bravado. He was fairly sure he could take this bruiser, but it was a huge risk and probably a waste of time. Still, he needed to know where Dr. Von Huff really was being held, and there was only one man left in the room who might know.
Wolfe made a gesture of tossing the gun across the room, but Carter suddenly grabbed his arm by the wrist. Carter’s feet were slow but he had quick hands. Wolfe let his training take over, grabbing the arm and leaping up, wrapping it with his legs. As strong as Carter was, he couldn’t hold Nick Wolfe up with one arm. He crashed down shoulder first with his weight and Nick’s on top. He pulled back on the left arm, which was now under his control. The wrenching pain was enough to send Carter’s right arm back in a feeble attempt to fight off Nick Wolfe’s attack.
Carter’s left arm was held by Wolfe’s legs and his right arm was now barred behind his back. His face was mostly in the carpet.
“Where are they keeping Dr. Von Huff?”
“I don’t know!”
Wolfe pulled back on his right arm, almost to the point of separating his shoulder.
“AAAUGH! I swear I don’t know!”
He pulled back a little more until there was a sickening pop. Carter passed out from the pain. If he really didn’t know, at least he was quiet for now. Wolfe gathered the TCs and searched them for familiar names and numbers. Even though these were personal devices, the agents still knew not to have names attached to the numbers. It didn’t matter. Nick tracked as many of the numbers as showed in the call histories, many of which were common to all the devices. He found most of them in the underground parking deck near the valet parking.
Nick watched the station from a distance, in the shadows, and followed agents as they went in teams of two to and from the temporary base of operations for most of the day. One team went to the fifth floor, another to the fourth floor where they found Carter and the three dead agents, and quietly sent him to the hospital. Another team went back up to the fifth floor. He followed them more closely and got the room number.
Shortly afterward, he returned to the room with a room service cart and a reloaded gun, and he knocked.
Wolfe had already broken in while Von Huff was still explaining that he had not ordered anything. He was older and portly, with a ruddy complexion that turned beet-red when he was under stress. By now, his face was almost purple.
“One minute you’re watching the news in a hotel room and the next, you have a gun in your face,” Nick said to the engineer. “Life is just not fair sometimes.”
Dr. Von Huff shouted, “What is the meaning of this?” He was louder than he had intended to be and the pitch of his voice was higher than he expected, revealing a note of fear in his façade of authority.
“I just have a few questions, Doctor. About Tom Vincent’s eyes.”
“Yes, a successful operation, medically speaking. Well, you are holding the gun. What would you like to know?”
“What’s next for the project?”
“It’s been put on the shelf for now. The losses have been too steep, even by Mr. Evans’ standards, considering his support of the program, and there are improvements that are still on development.”
“Like what?”
“There are many, but the main ones include a failsafe: if there is no contact with the satellite or the control center for a certain length of time, it will result in a shutdown. If it goes on for too long
a self-destruct mechanism is to be in place to avoid a repeat of Mr. Vincent’s destructive behavior.
“When will it start up again?”
“Probably next year.”
“Is Mr. Vincent’s DNA a factor in the development?”
“No, the nanos learn and adapt to the DNA of any host body.”
“Who has the plans for the new nanobots?”
“Just me. I am to deliver the only copy to Mr. Evans tomorrow. He doesn’t trust the Internet.”
“Where is it now?”
“In the Faraday case behind the bed. You can take the case, but you won’t be able to get into it. Even I don’t know the access code.”
“That’s not your problem,” Nick said as he started toward the case. As soon as he turned, he heard a grunt from Dr. Von Huff as he strained to pick up a heavy lamp. Nick turned back around just in time to dodge the lamp as it was coming down, more from its own weight than from the doctor’s energy. He stepped back nimbly as the base of the lamp broke in three thick pieces on the floor. Then he stepped forward and gave a lightning-quick jab to the doctor’s face, breaking his nose. “Don’t do that,” he said quietly as Von Huff crumpled to the floor with his nose bleeding and his eyes swelling.
Von Huff’s face was throbbing as Wolfe came toward him. He had hit his head hard on the way down, maybe it was on a table; he couldn’t remember. Whatever it was, he was sure he had a concussion in addition to his broken nose, and was losing consciousness. “Even if you destroy it I still have it all in here,” the doctor mumbled in a taunting singsong voice while pointing to his head. With that, Dr. Von Huff passed out.
***
The doctor awoke to the sound of his hotel room door being broken down. The lights were all out and he was tied to a chair facing the balcony. Von Huff guessed that BioMek Horizons Security was in the room, having caught up with his captor. “Hands up, Mr. Wolfe!” barked a voice. “I said hands up! This is the last time I’m going to say it.” Von Huff tried to speak but could not. He was gagged. He tried desperately to raise his hands, but couldn’t. It didn’t matter. Soon the man who tried to take his case would be dead and he would be on his way to safety. He realized he was wearing a room service jacket, and that the man was gone. Then he realized the voices were yelling at him.
One of the voices yelled, “He’s got a gun!” Another shouted, “Wait! Hold your—” but a few shots were fired. Just a few, but one was all it took to go through the doctor and break the glass in the French doors leading out to the balcony.
***
Wolfe had been following up on leads, including many dead ends and wasted time in an effort to find and, if possible, destroy the blueprints of the nanobots used to help Tom Vincent regain his eyesight. The same technology was also used to make Tom their unwitting spy and weapon, as it connected to a satellite relay that broadcast Tom’s every move. The eyes were a prototype, and the facility where they were created had been destroyed. The satellite had also been destroyed; with no one to guide it, it fell out of orbit shortly afterward.
But the plans were still out there.
Tom was concerned that his DNA might be used for more experiments since the procedure was such a success with his body. He didn’t want to be tracked down and made to give DNA samples for any reason, nor did he want to have it out there as part of BioMek Horizons’ patent. Tristan Evans had a large and ruthless team of lawyers who would do anything in their power to make Tom’s DNA company property. Tom also didn’t like the idea of any more spy cameras in the world than there were already.
For his part, Nick Wolfe wanted to stick it to Tristan Evans for nearly destroying his friend’s life. He didn’t have many friends in this world, let alone many good ones, but Tom was definitely one of them. The only men he trusted as much as Tom Vincent were his brothers-in-arms in Green Squad, a team of mercenaries employed by BioMek Horizons to carry out Black Ops-style missions, mostly in third world countries, but occasionally in the West—sometimes in the United States. They were good at getting in, doing a job, and getting out quietly. These jobs were usually sabotage missions, but could include theft or assassination. The pay was good and all of Green Squad enjoyed field-testing the new toys sent out courtesy of Tristan Evans and BioMek Horizons.
Josh Taylor was sent to find Nick Wolfe and bring him back alive to Tristan Evans’ office in Atlanta. Josh was Nick’s closest friend in Green Squad, and didn’t care for the assignment, but he was glad to be in a position to see that no harm came to Nick needlessly. In any event, he had a job to do.
He was a little surprised to find out Nick was not on the run, but actually already in Atlanta, following Dr. Von Huff, the lead engineer of the nano-eyes project. Normally, this meant it would be easy, but Nick Wolfe never made anything easy.
Taylor was a few years older than Wolfe, a few inches taller, but otherwise about the same build. He occasionally worried that his current gig as Head of Security at BioMek Horizons had made him a little soft, but these worries didn’t last long as the demands of the job didn’t put him in the life-or-death situations he endured as a mercenary. He had a decidedly relaxed quality, one of being in control. If he worried about anything, he never let anyone else know it. He kept his head shaved, which made him even more of a mystery: he was dark-skinned for a white man, but on the lighter side of black, or he could have been Arabic, or maybe something else.
Chapter 2
By the time the situation had played out upstairs, Nick was already on his way down with the case. He escaped by way of the balconies, jumping from one to the next after throwing the case down ahead of him. He guessed the case had a tracking device, and that he would need to get the small hard drive out now if he planned to do it at all, but how? He couldn’t break into it, and he couldn’t destroy it. Nick realized he may have to leave it behind to avoid being tracked.
The agents from BioMek Horizons arrived at a freight elevator in the back of the building. They saw the case on the floor and went toward it. One of the men said, “I guess he chickened out and left the case.” Another warned, “We better make sure it’s all in there.” He waited until the door was closed, hit the emergency stop, and pulled a credit card-sized display from his pocket. On the screen was a series of numbers changing every 5 seconds. The apparent leader of the two waited until the numbers changed one last time and entered them into the keypad on the Faraday case. It opened on its own after that, revealing a CD and a small drive.
The lead agent was about to close the case when Nick Wolfe came crashing in through the access panel in the ceiling of the elevator car, landing on the briefcase. It closed on the leader’s hand, breaking the hand, but not the case. In the same motion, he ducked the blow he knew was coming from the other agent. Missing his mark, the agent dented the metal wall with his fist, but didn’t appear to be in any pain. Nick then kicked the lead agent in the throat as he was fully exposed trying to pull his hand out of the case. Not pretty, but it would work. By now he was writhing, trying to inhale, loosening his solid navy blue tie.
In one fluid motion, Wolfe ducked and twisted again, predicting the next blow without looking. It was a little too close, too fast. Nick’s guess was that the second agent was cybernetically enhanced. He sprang back up behind the standing agent, waited a split second for him to turn, and head-butted him across the bridge of the nose; the sound and feel of breaking bones were unmistakable. The blood flowed and the agent grunted. Wolfe picked up the case and drove the corner of it into his face. He passed out from the pain almost instantly.
The first agent regained his breath in time to get a final taste of the Faraday case. Nick took the card, re-opened the case, and removed the CD and the drive. He was on his way back up to the fifth floor to change over to a guest elevator and walk out through the front door. If there were other goons waiting, they would back off from a crowd full of potential witnesses. Besides, there were probably people waiting on the bottom floors near the freight elevator doors.
Nick c
ould sense the situation unraveling and he wanted to get out of the hotel as quickly as possible, but if he were caught he would not get a second chance to get the information out of the hands of BioMek Horizons. It was worth it to take a few extra seconds to complete the mission here. He crouched down and took the CD out of the case and broke it in half, then broke those pieces for good measure. He then put the drive halfway under his boot and pulled the other half up until it broke. The keycard with the ever-changing numbers was harder to destroy. It was a hard metal and Nick could only bend it, but in doing so he noticed the numbers blinked out for good as he tore the circuitry on the surface apart. He then put all the pieces back into the Faraday case, locking it shut just as a gentle bell tone announced his arrival at the fifth floor.
The elevator door opened to reveal Nick’s old friend and teammate, Josh Taylor. Surprised, Nick said, “Hello, Josh. How did you know?” Josh replied, “I didn’t know, exactly, but I know you have more discipline than to make a beeline out of any building that may be covered.”
“True, the shortest distance between two points is usually the most predictable.”
“Except in your case, but don’t feel bad. By now there are men waiting on most of the floors. Why don’t you make this easy on yourself and hand over the CD and drive?” Nick complied, handing him the reinforced briefcase. The contents rattled around as Taylor took it. He glanced down at the case and then back to Nick. Nick winked with a sly grin.
Josh Taylor sighed in exasperation, “Nick, you haven’t changed a bit … and did you have to set up Dr. Von Huff to be shot like that?”
“Better him than me. Besides, you and I both know he could easily reproduce the nanobots’ programming if I left him alive. So, what now?”
“Well, tonight is your lucky night. Tristan is still pissed at you, believe me, but right now he wants your skills more than he wants revenge. Let’s go have a little talk with your former employer. He has a job for you.”
Slaves of Pangaea: The Second Nick Wolfe Sci Fi Adventure (Nick Wolfe Adventure Series Book 2) Page 1