by Franks, JK
“Put your fucking hand down, son. Do you not have any combat training? Do you not understand that people may be watching to see who the officers are? Are you aware that saluting me could put a bullseye on my skull? Are you trying to get me killed? Is that it?”
“No…no, sir, I swear, I’m not. No, sir. It’s just…”
“Just what man? Come on!”
“It’s just that we aren’t at combat down here. I’m just guarding a door.”
The man had a slight British accent, no doubt another one of Chambers’ mercenaries. Skybox relaxed his tone and softened his posture. “You’re doing a damn fine job of it, too. Any idea what goes on in there?”
“No, sir, above my pay-grade.”
“Aye, mine, too, I’m sure,” Skybox said as if the two had been chums for years. “Look, you know the place well. I just arrived a few days ago.”
Pittman nodded, “Yeah, pretty well.”
“Awesome,” Skybox continued. “Look, my C.O. said I could get some fresh air somewhere down this way. Had a bit of trouble in some caves around Tora Bora―anyway, the damn things give me the willies now. You spend any time in the Stan? Worked alongside some Brits, tough bastards. Good lads.”
“Af…Afghanistan, sir? No, sir.” The guard lowered his gaze. “No access to the outside down here. You want the G passage for that, but you will have to get clearance unless you go out with the GP.”
Skybox had already discovered the GP meant general population, the civilians in the protectorate. He still had no idea how many were down here, but it had to be well into the thousands. “Well, lovely,” he said with just a hint of Brit-speak himself. He was about to turn and leave when the door opened, and a man in a lab coat walked out. The research scene behind the man grabbed his full attention. He had seen it before on the video feed from Archangel. He needed to get into that section. “Carry-on, soldier, fine job.” Skybox nodded, turned and walked away.
The scene above reminded Scott of scenes out of WW2 and the Ardennes forest. Instead of tanks, gun emplacements and bunkers were everywhere. The idyllic looking national forest was a hive of weaponry and counter-intrusion devices. Sky had provided the complicated location of the entrance corridor, but they had not gone in yet. As anxious as he was to get to his fiancée, the way forward looked like certain death. Ghost was somewhere up this wooded trail, how he would have survived in there was a mystery, but Scott felt sure he had. Solo had yet to return, but they were watching a video feed from a small camera Rollins had attached to the dog’s collar.
The facilities’ defense systems obviously allowed for wild animals to pass unharmed. That was good as Solo was investigating every man-made object in the park, pissing on most and generally being an ass about anything that looked dangerous. This included peeing on, then using his paws to send a cascade of dirt over, an obvious ground level security camera enclosure.
Scott watched nervously as Rollins monitored the video feed, until something high in the air caught his attention. A spark of sunlight reflecting off metal. Thoughts of the KEP device sent a stab of fear through his body. The origin of this object, though, was not up in orbit but far closer to the earth's surface. The object grew as it descended in a free fall from several hundred feet up to come to an abrupt stop at five feet above the ground. The drone, which he could now see it indeed was, seemed impossibly small with an orbiting rotor that spiraled upward from the tiny body like ornate, entertained wings. The cylindrical wings revolved, but the object didn’t move, did not vary from its position in front of Scott.
It was then that Scott noticed faint lights emanating from the spinning cylinder. The lights morphed into letters and the letters into words. Rollins’ gaze was broken by the faintest of humming from the tiny drone. “Whoa,” the man said. “Who has tech like that?”
Scott said nothing as he finished reading the message: “Be ready 0600h.” The drone sped up and out of sight within seconds.
How in the fuck had he done that? “Get base on the radio, tell Tahir to sound the alarms.” Rollins nodded as he fumbled for the radio. Scott looked at the video monitor emerging from the foliage where Solo was looking at a face. Ghost. Scott looked at the others, “Tomorrow morning, guys—this is it.”
Krychek shouldered his M16, “So, what’s the play?”
Scott pointed at the screen, “Just like we planned it. I follow Ghost in tonight as he obviously knows how to avoid the sensors. He’s been out here nearly a week. At 0600 hours, Tahir sounds the alarm, we slip in with the others and then return underground once the all-clear is given. Once inside, you wait for our signal, then plant the beacon and come in with the Army. Understand?” Heads nodded in agreement. “Gentlemen—we go, we fight!”
Whatever nerves he might have had were gone. Scott was turned on in a way he’d never been before. Angry, yes, determined…hell, yes. But not vengeful or reckless, he was sharp. Rollins gave him the coordinates to get to Solo and Ghost as he made the call back to base. Tahir’s voice was reassuring as they synchronized timing. He would trigger one of the minor safety systems on the NuArc reactors just before ‘go-time.’
“BikerBoi,” Tahir said, “the others are getting close to you, man. Getting in is going to be easy compared to you getting out.”
Chapter Ninety-Four
The figure on the screen stumbled out of the forest and awkwardly walked closer to the camera. The man’s hair and clothes were smoking. He should have been in great pain yet showed no outward signs of discomfort.
“Holy shit,” Skybox said staring in horror as parts of the creature literally began to ignite.
“How many of these are you seeing now?” Archangel asked the tech manning the station.
“It’s on the increase, sir. None until last week, now we are seeing ten to fifteen of the infected each shift. We had to dial the sensitivity on all the sensors way back. Try to deal with them like other wild animals, but…”
“Those that get too close still get cooked,” Archangel said in mock disgust.
The infected was literally walking directly toward a panel generating high-intensity microwaves. It would cook him from the inside out before he got much closer. The panels were concealed all around Thunder Ridge and were one of many different types of intrusion prevention devices. The idea of them dialing down sensitivity gave him a few ideas on how to help Scott and the team.
“Sky, you good with this? It’s all tech you’ve used at some point.” Archangel had spent the better part of two days going over the normal security protocols. He had a mission and would be away for a few days. Skybox would be helping to keep an eye on things in his absence. He knew there was more to it than that. He was pretty sure he was being tested but was unsure exactly by whom.
“Yeah, I got it,” he confirmed.
“Good, just stay out of their way. These people know what they are doing. Now, let me show you master controls. You won’t need them, but just in case.”
He followed the older man into one of the more sensitive areas of the security wing. “If Levy calls, you want to take it in here,” he motioned to a small office with a video conferencing screen. “She is the one sending me out, so don’t think she will be calling.”
“Angel,” Skybox interrupted, “why is the leader of Praetor taking a mission assignment?”
His eyes seemed to say, Not here. “I was…pulled from…well, reassigned for this one purpose. This mission is it. Everything else, I just inherited when Vince went boots up. I don’t do this, I’ll be the same way. The Council won’t just lock me up next time.”
They spent several more hours going over every aspect of the base’s operations. Recoding Skybox’s badge for more access and introducing him to the security teams on rotation. “Where is your detainment center?”
“Don’t have one.”
Skybox was confused, “How does that work, where do you take prisoners?”
“We don’t take prisoners.”
“I see.”
“Next�
�� don’t go into the admin wing unless you are invited. Got it? If she is here, and she wants you, she will call. Let the NSF handle the general population. You handle the base itself.”
“Sir, yes, sir!”
“Can it, cadet,” the lead commander said with a rare smile on his face.
“Lastly, I need to show you our air cover.” Archangel led him down the hall and into a cavernous room lined with what appeared to be gaming computers, large curved monitors and chairs mounted on gimbals. Most were unoccupied, but a few had people sitting in them, hands-on joysticks with virtual reality style headsets covering much of their faces. “Here is our local Air Force. They have a separate Air Boss, you are not in that command chain. Each pilot can handle multiple birds, most of which you’ve never seen or even heard of.”
Skybox was impressed; he guessed there must be sixty or more stations which meant pilots as well. “They don’t fly out of here?”
Archangel shook his head, “No, no. We have the mini-drone coverage here, but that is all autonomous. I don’t even know where all of these UAVs are based, but they can launch and fly on targets all over the country.”
“What about space weapons?”
With a confused look, Archangel responded, “Those don’t exist, Skybox.”
Skybox noticed the way his eyes cut up and to the right as he said it. One of the classic signs of telling a lie. Praetors were all trained in subterfuge, though, and also, he knew from observations that Archangel was left-handed. The up and to the right being a lie was only somewhat accurate, but even then, it was linked to the dominant hand being the right one. He knew the KEP controls were somewhere nearby, possibly in one of the rooms off the mezzanine above.
Truths within lies, battles within battles. He was growing weary of it all. The time to end all this was long overdue. He’d watched everything his commander had shown him from two mindsets. One was obvious in that he needed to know how it all worked. The second was to understand how it could be used against him if he went rogue or possibly how to use it to reach Gia, if she was even still here. Angel seemed to want him to take out the Council or at least its head. It was all maddeningly difficult. He needed Scott or Tahir’s brainpower to make sense of it all. He spent the rest of his time in the security rooms going over video feeds, trying to see where the doctor might be.
Levy was rarely bothered by any of her decisions, but the mission she was sending Archangel on was significant, even by her standards. A fiery rage coursed through her body before she could subdue it. Revenge was a mighty sword in her hands, almost as powerful as the SA1297 virus. Only she had the full understanding of where everything was heading. No one else could be trusted. The anger she felt toward the other members of her Council had been somewhat sated. Angel would handle the rest and the man behind it all. She had wanted to be there, to see his face, but now, that was impossible. She had cameras there―she could peer through her little window and watch him suffer, just as he had done.
Chapter Ninety-Five
I can’t do this. Solo huffed near his face bringing Scott immediately awake. Once again, he’d been dreaming of Gia. Their last night together, her faint words echoing away in his subconscious mind. His eyes opened to see Solo’s ass; the dog was looking away. Tommy, aka Ghost, was there too, nearly invisible in the darkness. It had taken him hours to safely work his way this deep into the woods. He had seen numerous gun emplacements and anti-intrusion devices, but all were automated. Tahir had assured them he could deactivate the ones on the entry corridor for brief periods. So far, it had worked, but each time he approached any of the evil looking things, it took everything he had to keep moving. Upon reaching Solo and Tommy near the fenced clearing, he’d been mentally and physically exhausted. He offered Tommy food and was surprised to see him take it. Then, he’d slept soundly, other than the dream.
One hour to go when they changed, stowed the extra gear and made their way closer to the fenced compound. Tommy moved some debris away from a spot revealing a shallow depression. Scott had been unsure how they would scale the high fence, but now he saw. The heavy-gauge security fencing extended down into the ground several feet, but Tommy had snipped away parts of it down in the depression. From the surface, it looked solid, but below ground, the breach would just be large enough for the two of them to pass. Unfortunately, Solo would have to stay outside for now. No way they could conceal him in with the general population of the camp. Scott touched the beautiful dog’s head and gave the sign to wait. The dog slipped back into the shadows.
Scott lay there in the semi-darkness waiting and thinking about all that had brought him to this point. The blackout while he was on his bike that day it all happened. Meeting his new friends for the first time. Rescuing Kaylie and fighting for the town. Seeing Tommy standing outside his cottage the first time. Roosevelt, Angel and then being lost at sea with Skybox. Then, rediscovering Gia, finding his true love in the midst of all this. His life now was so different than before. Harder, yes…much. But…well, damn, he felt alive. In many ways, he felt like he was now living someone else’s life; this couldn’t be his. This was a suicide mission; his intelligent mind was screaming this fact over and over, yet he didn’t care. He would not be deterred, he had to find her.
Ten minutes to go, Scott felt for his compact Glock and the knives discreetly tucked into various pockets. He felt wrong to now be wearing the captured black uniform, but it was the only way to blend in. Far off in the distance, he thought he heard gunfire, maybe even heavy artillery. Just a few more minutes…the military being too close would put the whole base on alert and ramping up the risk factor considerably for him and Tommy. Tommy…Where the fuck is he? He’d been lying on the ground close enough to touch, now there was nothing. Shit! He was on his own.
The night sky was just beginning to lighten as his watch gave a light buzz. Ten minutes later, he heard something faintly…an alarm, but the direction was impossible to tell until a well-camouflaged hatch opened in the meadow. The alarm was easy to hear now as were panicked voices climbing up and into view. Scott slowly crawled under the fence and into the meadow. As more and more people emerged, he stood, dusted the dirt from his uniform and shouldered the angry looking Kel-Tec RFB compact automatic. Like the uniform, the weapon had been one of many retrieved from dead guards at Yokena.
The people emerging from underground looked bewildered and huddled in small groups. Hundreds of people came out of the hatch. Several other guards, looking just like him, exited the opening and took up positions around the perimeter facing outward. He did the same; the difference was, he was scanning for Ghost, not threats. Several minutes later, the alarm stopped. One of the guards appeared to be speaking into a radio. If they all had that, he might be discovered. Scott moved farther away. “What’s going on?” one of the civilians asked. Scott looked to see how the other NSF guards were treating the people and realized they were all ignoring them. He did the same.
Almost an hour later, the guard with the radio gave the all clear, and the masses of grumbling civilians and their NSF protectors began filing back into the complex. Scott waited until the flow of people began to thin before shouldering his rifle and walking toward the entrance. He knew his heart should be racing, pulse pounding, but he felt an odd calm as if he did this every day of the week. He calmly watched how the other guards behaved and mimicked it. No one gave him a second look until he reached the bottom of the stairs. Then a hand reached from the darkness firmly grabbing and swiftly pulling him from the line of advancing people.
“Come with me.”
Scott recognized the voice, but that was all he could discern in the dark passageway. “Hey, I…”
Skybox silenced him, “Not here.”
The echoes of thousands of feet walking in every direction were all Scott could hear, but he trusted his friend. They walked for fifteen minutes before Skybox opened a door and ushered him inside. The spartan room resembled one of the cabins on the Bataan. It was utilitarian and clean, but tho
se were about the only things you could say about it. Sky turned to Scott and grinned, grabbing him into a quick bro-hug, “How are you doing, man?”
“We can talk here?” Scott asked nervously.
“For now, but assume you are monitored everywhere. I have the bugs in this room blocked. Took me a while to get access to any of the security systems.”
“Thanks for the message on the drone, pretty clever.”
Sky nodded, “So, what all is happening out there?”
“Well, I think I lost Tommy getting in here,” Scott said softly.
“Ah, don’t worry about him. I assure you he made it. They didn’t call him ‘The Magician’ for nothing.”
Scott took several minutes filling Sky in on the military troops and infected heading their way. “We began encountering them near here a couple of days ago.”
Skybox was processing it as quickly as possible, “So, Tahir came up with a way to herd the infected?”
“Yes,” Scott said. “A low-frequency sound that they flee from.” Scott looked around the small room then asked the only question he had. “Did you find her?”
Skybox didn’t answer for several minutes but then nodded. “Yes, I saw her on camera. She is back behind the science wing near the admin section.”
“Is that where they keep prisoners? Are they forcing her to continue her research?”
Skybox shrugged, “I don’t know, Scott, but…from what I can tell, they don’t house any prisoners here. She didn’t appear to be guarded.”
“What are you saying, she wasn’t taken prisoner, she is free to leave?”
“I’m not saying anything, friend, just saying what I saw.”
The same alarm started blaring again, “Tahir?” Scott asked. Skybox shook his head no. “Something else.”
Chapter Ninety-Six