by S. T. Boston
“Possibly,” President Hill commented, thinking of how his intel teams were also damn sure that no terrorist group had the technology to produce The Reaper. Ultimately it was going to be his call, once again he felt that if they survived the next twenty four hours he should really get that, The Buck Stops Here, shirt. “There is no way that I am going to leave this nation defenceless against nuclear attack, we continue as planned.” His voice sounded more convincing than he actually felt. Had it not been for The Reaper the world would be well down the path to ridding itself of its fossil fuel dependency. It was still a road he was committed to, but they were a long way off. He also cursed Russia for the strangle hold that it had on the world, a stranglehold that had ultimately led to this shit-house situation. He had a horrible feeling that the Dae Wonsu had been telling the truth, or there was a partial amount of it laced in with a cover story. The thing he had trouble getting his head around was just who would have anything to gain by burning the world. It had to be a mistake, he hoped to god it was.
Chapter 34
The first floor room at The Barge Inn was small and functional, but most importantly, clean and tidy. As they'd checked it, Taulass had managed to negotiate a bundle of old copier paper from the bearded guy behind the bar, the same one which had served them all breakfast earlier in the day, although to Adam it seemed like a week ago.
Once in the room Adam had ordered more food and drink, steaks with chips, and over the chips they'd melted some vintage cheddar cheese. Despite the food smelling delicious and the steaks being cooked to perfection, none of them really felt like eating much. Lucie managed to consume the most food, although she'd mainly opted for the side salad, claiming that too much red meat was bad for her baby. However she'd seemed intent on not letting her unborn child go hungry despite how nauseous she felt at every bite. Gradually as the first few hours ticked by she started to come out of her protective shell a bit, although she was still visibly shaken at having to cope with the idea that for a second time in a day she'd potentially lost her husband, the rollercoaster of events was starting to show on her delicate face.
Even as they'd been picking at the food, Oriyanna and Taulass had started work, spreading blank sheets of paper out on the bed and scribbling notes in a language that Adam had no hope of understanding. Long scrolled out equations formed on various sheets that Taulass moved into positions which were either in some chronological order, or most advantageous for him to read. It became clear, very early on, that his intellect in this matter out-shone Oriyanna's by quite a considerable margin. On more than one occasion Adam saw her clasp her head in her hands, her blonde hair falling over her face, which was locked in confusion. The pair spoken hurriedly in Arkkadian, the language sounded strange and exotic and felt like aural silk to listen to, even if he couldn't understand it.
A number of times a full sheet of script and math was screwed into a ball by Taulass and launched with anger across the room, the way an angry student might treat an unsatisfactory dissertation. He seemed to be growing ever more frustrated with the task in hand, leaving Adam wondering if he really could work out whatever it was he needed to work out in order to make the plan of using the ship's transportation hub to gain access to Arkus 2 work. Adam really couldn't see how it could be all that difficult to change the way the ship took its power feed, but he also accepted that he knew diddlysquat about the subject. All he knew was that the process was painfully slow.
Around two hours after eating, and with both the Arkkadians still deep in consultation and thought, Adam saw that Lucie, who had propped herself against a warm radiator, had fallen asleep. He took a pillow from the bed, having to move two sheets of heavily scribbled on paper, much to Taulass' disapproval, from the bed. Carefully he shifted Lucie's slight frame and laid her on the floor. In the small built-in wardrobe he found some sheets and covered her over.
As the light of the day gradually failed, Adam too felt a growing need to get some rest. Making himself comfortable in a small chair he watched the pair with interest, whilst feeling more than a little useless. His anxiety growing by the minute, it built like steam in a pressure cooker and he felt sure that it would cause him to explode. In one corner of the room a small radio was playing away to itself, the half hourly news broadcasts filled with the same story, again and again. The bombing of Tokyo. He'd filled Lucie in on the developing events before the food had arrived, although she knew no one in the ruined Japanese capital she wept all the same. Each time the news jingle played Adam fixed his attention to it, half expecting another city to have been hit. However the news that he feared never came, and as the small single glazed window turned from a wet, drizzly grey to black, Adam drifted into a deep, but dream-disturbed sleep.
His visions were filled with fast changing scenes, in one he was back below the Great Pyramid, his body raked in fever. He was climbing down the rope, toward the hidden chamber which held The Tabut, and he could hear Oriyanna screaming, somewhere at the bottom. Only the rope had no end and the black pit below him seemed eternal, a perpetual fall with no bottom. At the top a fire was burning, eating hungrily at the rope, as if it were a fuse-wire. No matter how fast he descended the flames kept coming. As they reached his hands he felt their searing heat and let go. As he fell the fire consumed his hands, spread up his arms and engulfed his torso. As he opened his mouth to scream it flooded his throat, turning him to dust. Then the scene changed.
He was standing on the Arkkadian beach with Oriyanna, her golden hair fluttering in the light breeze, the way it had when he'd kissed her on that evening over two years ago. An evening that had been the most perfect of his life, however now something felt off, not right, almost foul. Above them native bird species flew in large flocks, their shrill cries filling the air, as if fleeing some unseen danger, and the sky, which had been a stunning blue, and had framed Arkkadia's twin moons beautifully, was now blood red. Then, out across the crystal clear ocean water he saw what the birds were fleeing from. A wall of fire swept relentlessly toward them, boiling the sea as it came. He turned to run, but saw that Oriyanna's deep blue eyes were gone, replaced by a pair of evil-looking amber ones. Those eyes fixed him to the spot and as her face distorted into a scream he felt himself once again become enveloped in flames. Somehow he watched as she held him there, he saw her hair burn, then her flesh, until all he was left holding was her blacken, skeletal-like hands. As he looked at his own they were the same, their bones burnt fiercely, then they turned to dust.
His next dream found him back in the RV, he was in the passenger seat. The vehicle was lumbering its way along Trail Ridge Road, rain hammering down on the cab, hitting the windscreen like a spray of ball bearings. John Denver was on the radio again, Annie's song drifted through the cab, but John's voice and his guitar were off key, it all sounded out of tune, like a bag of cats mewing in fear as they were cast into an icy lake. Adam didn't make it as far as finding Oriyanna this time, and once again the world around the RV became bathed in fire. This time he watched Sam burn before he, once again, succumbed to the flames and dust. Everything turned to dust.
Adam snapped awake, the first signs of dawn were now filling the small window, light blues mixed with warmer oranges as the sun began to rise. His back felt stiff and as he eased himself out of the chair he noticed that Oriyanna was curled up comfortably in the bed that had been covered in their workings when he'd fallen asleep. Taulass, who it seemed had not had the luxury of any sleep was clutching a number of sheets of slightly crumpled paper in his hands, a broad smile on his face.
“I was just about to wake you,” he said excitedly. “I think we are ready.”
Any aches or remnants of sleep left Adam instantly, “Are you sure?” he asked, his body becoming washed with both relief and dread.
“There was a time, not long after you went to bed that I thought it was going to be impossible. The power from a space jump and the power that can be gleaned from a planetary grid are so vastly different. But, yes, I believe I can alter th
e way the Taribium of the ship's hull transfers the energy to the hub, thus bypassing the anti-matter engines for the most part. We might need to take a little juice from them, but nothing that will jeopardise their use at a later date.”
“You lost me in the first sentence,” Adam said, trying to smile. “If you say it will work, I'll go along with it. What time is it?”
“Just gone seven AM,” Taulass answered, pointing to the small red LED clock on the night stand. “I took the liberty of setting the correct time when the power came back on.”
“If they have taken Sam to Peru, will they have even arrived yet? I mean what time will it be there?”
“It depends on how they transported him,” Taulass said thoughtfully. “Lucie seems to think it was around one PM yesterday when they attacked, so that was eighteen hours ago now. I'd imagine that they will be there, or thereabouts by now. The local time in Peru will be just after two AM at the moment.”
“Will you need long once we get the ship here?” Adam bent down and gently shook Lucie awake.
“A half hour at the most, I hope! I have all the changes I need to make to the craft's systems here,” he gestured to the papers he had clutched in his hand. “I'll work as quickly as I can, I'm well aware that they will be watching to see what the ship does when they pick it up, I don't want them to second guess us.”
“We are ready,” Adam said to his sister, as she quickly came out of her deep sleep. Her eyes still looked red, almost as if she'd been weeping all night.
“To get Sam?” she asked, hopefully.
“Yes, and to put a stop to this once and for all.” It was a tall order, and Adam realised they hadn't even yet discussed how things were going to happen once they got aboard Arkus 2. His stomach felt sick.
By the time Lucie was up, and dusting herself down, Adam had woken Oriyanna, who looked a little embarrassed at having nodded off.
“I thought it best if she rest,” Taulass defended. “I have been thinking about just how we are going to play this once we are aboard, and you two are going to need all the energy you can muster.”
“Care to share with us what the plan is?” Adam asked, not quite sure if he wanted to know the answer. He watched Taulass rip up several sheets of paper and tidy them into a small bin, which was lined with an old Tesco carrier bag. Once the room was tidy he folded his precious workings out into the pocket of his trousers. He grabbed the small backpack off the floor, the one Sam had brought with him. Before they'd left the cottage they'd collected up what weapons they could find. Unzipping it he moved to the bed and shook the contents out onto the disturbed duvet.
“This is our rather meagre armoury,” he said, looking at the items. “We have one Taser, thanks to the dead guy back at the cottage. He held the item up, “One round in it and four spare.” He placed it back in the bag. “We have my Glock, fully loaded.” He checked the safety and placed it in the bag, “And we have Oriyanna's Glock, minus one round. They must have taken the other firearms with them. The other Glock joined the other items before he zipped the bag closed. “Now on board Niribus, we have a number of hand weapons.”
“Arkkadian ones?” Adam asked, feeling a flitter of hope.
“Yes, of course,” Taulass answered. “They work on the same basic principle as your weapons, as in it's a point and shoot affair, but what they do is somewhat different. We are past the stage of using physical projectiles, bullets as you call them. What our weapons use is more like a very nasty energy pulse.”
“In layman's terms please,” groaned Adam.
“Point it at your enemy, use the red laser dot, just like your primitive guns have, to make sure you're aiming it at the right person, pull the trigger and it sends a shock of electrical power that literally shuts down every organ in the body.”
“Well, that should do the trick,” Adam said, giving the room a once over to make sure they'd not left anything important behind. He felt a little cheated that they didn't have laser guns, like so many science fiction movies had portrayed over the years. “You can fill us in on the rest of the plan on the way to Stonehenge.”
“Yes, agreed,” Taulass answered. “It's time we got moving.”
The pub was shut as they filed down into the lounge bar, the air smelt of cleaning products, and everything looked ready for a new day's custom. Adam felt a certain satisfaction that despite everything that had happened over the last few years, the old place was still in business. He had many fond memories of playing on the rope swing in the back field as a child, which was always packed with campers during the summer months, and how he'd spend hours as a teenager, marvelling at the hundreds of crop circle photos that decorated the lounge bar's walls like some new-age glossy wallpaper. Now, stood in that same lounge bar, with some of those same photos still occupying the exact same spot's they had for years, he felt a little pang of sentiment and wondered if this would be the last time he'd ever see the place. As the others filed out of the back door and onto the canal's towpath, he took one last wistful look around and with a heavy heart, followed them out.
The late September morning was, as the last week had been, strangely cold, and a fine sheen of ice covered the front and back windscreens of his Mazda. Oriyanna placed the bag of weapons in the rather pokey boot, or trunk as she seemed to call it, opting for the American terminology, much to Adam's annoyance, before climbing into the back.
With the engine running the glass soon cleared and he bumped his way down the small unkempt road that led away from the pub and down the side of the abandoned mill, eventually coming out opposite his Grandparents' old cottage. At the narrow junction he took a left and went over the canal before taking another left down what looked to be another non-descript British country lane.
“Do you know the way?” Taulass asked.
“Sure, it's no more than a half hour drive, so best we start going through just how we are going to do this.” Adam paused, not quite able to believe he was going into the hornets' nest once again. “I wish Sam was here, this kinda thing is much more his cup of tea.”
Oriyanna lent forward from the cramped back seat that she was sharing with Lucie, she placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “Last time, Adam, in the Great Pyramid, you saved us all, you shot Buer. You are a different man to the one you were back then, I can feel it in you. You're stronger.”
Adam felt it, too. He had survived the Egypt ordeal by the skin of his teeth, and although he still wanted Sam's experience he fully accepted that he needed to do what had to be done, almost as if this was his pre-determined fate.
As Adam expertly navigated the twisty, and seemingly treacherous, Wiltshire country lanes, Taulass turned in his seat to take in the whole car, “Right, this is how I see this happening,” he began, removing the ships recall device from his pocket. “Oriyanna and I ran though it briefly last night before I persuaded her to get some sleep.” He flashed a smile at her before continuing. “Once we have the ship here and I have made the necessary alterations to allow the hub to work from Earth's energy grid, Oriyanna, Adam and myself will go through to the Arkus 2. Lucie, you will be staying on our ship.”
“But…” she interjected.
“No,” Taulass said, cutting her off. “I need someone back at the ship, and in your delicate situation it has to be you. I'm sorry.” He gave her an apologetic smile before continuing. “Once we gain a connection to the hub aboard Arkus 2 we will have fifteen seconds to go through, it will then shut down, meaning if anyone figures out how we got there they won't be able to come the other way and compromise our ship. I'll be setting a little program that will prevent a return dial from the other end. I'll set up a timed return window for a half hour after we go through.” He fixed his attention on Lucie and said, “You won't need to do anything, it will do everything automatically. That window will be open for fifteen seconds so it's imperative that we watch our time closely. If we miss that window a second will open ten minutes later.” He paused for a second, “After that, well, we will have to
see what happens. That second window will be the final one, I can't risk subbing anymore power from the ship's engines. I for one don't intend on spending more than forty minutes aboard that craft. We are in a very time-sensitive situation, I suspect that Enola will be going live today, and all indications we have suggest that the in the next few hours Earth's nuclear powers are going to be back in the game. Asmodeous won't waste any time, the moment he can use those weapons he will.”
“How do you intend on stopping the nukes?” Asked Adam.
“I'm getting to that bit,” Taulass said, sounding a little impatient. “Although the systems on Arkus 2 pre-date ours they are fundamentally the same. Enola will be designed to work alongside the alien tech, as you would call it. I need to find a server room on the ship. Our craft will have stored in its systems the schematics for every craft ever built. It also has the codes for all the transportation hubs, hence how we can call any of them up. I can copy that onto one of our portable tablets. If I can gain access to a server room I will need that thirty to forty minutes to find Enola and copy the program over to my systems. I'm hoping that if I can get a copy then I, too, can control the launch systems and override their commands.”
“That's a pretty long shot, with a lots of room for failure,” said Adam, sounding doubtful.
“It's the only way I can see it working,” Taulass defended. “I am good at what I do, have faith in me.” He eyed him sincerely. “But, you do need to understand that it is a long shot, and ultimately we may not be able to stop it.”