by Jeff Gunhus
Two red starbursts exploded out from Dahlia’s back, but her weight pinned the soldier down.
Charlie saw it and screamed.
Rick was so stunned that he nearly missed the opening her move gave him. Estevez hadn’t moved either, but Rick knew that wouldn’t last long. He was the first to snap into action and lunge at Estevez.
He was already midair when Estevez reacted and raised his gun.
Rick smacked it out of the way, using his prosthetic to hit the man’s forearm with such force that he heard the bone snap. Estevez cried out as the gun went flying through the air.
Rick disengaged and lunged after the gun on the ground. The drones were inside the lab with Keefer, but they wouldn’t take long to come back if their security setting was adjusted. And that would only take a few seconds. Besides, the complex outside the main cavern was crawling with soldiers. He had to move.
He reached the weapon and closed his hand around it.
But Estevez grabbed his leg and pulled him backward. The gun fumbled from his grip.
Rick screamed as hot searing pain shot through his calf.
He looked down the length of his body and saw Estevez with his hand on the end of a knife handle buried in his leg. Estevez pulled on the knife but Rick’s leg jerked up, the knife stuck in bone.
Rick kicked free, crying out from the pain. The knife remained skewered in his leg, the point of the blade sticking out the other side by two or three inches.
Estevez reached for another gun carried on his vest, exposing his ribcage.
With a yell, Rick swung his leg as hard as he could, sinking the knifepoint into the man’s side.
Estevez grabbed his side, exactly as Rick expected.
Pain bolted up his leg, but he ignored it. He took the opening Estevez gave him, pulled his leg back and kicked again.
This one landed in Estevez’s neck, causing a spray of blood. He fell to the ground, clawing at the wound as if he could block the blood from spilling out.
Rick immediately lunged again for the gun, and grabbed it this time. He spun, looking for the other soldier.
He had Dahlia pushed off of him and was bringing his gun up toward Rick.
Too late. Rick fired twice into the man’s chest.
Next, he looked to the lab. The doors were still closed.
“Watch out,” Charlie cried.
Another drone flew at him from his right, different from the ones that had followed Keefer back into the lab.
Rick rolled toward Estevez as bullets peppered the ground around him.
One hit his thigh, blowing out a piece of his muscle. He cried out and lunged to Estevez.
He pulled the man on top of him, using him for cover.
The drone didn’t delineate between targets. It sprayed bullets into Estevez, tearing him apart.
Rick took a bullet in the shoulder. Another in the same leg as the knife. But Estevez blocked the rest from reaching him.
The drone emptied its limited magazine. As it switched to an alternative weapon, Rick took his chance.
He fired rapidly, trying to anticipate the drone’s evasive maneuvers.
A shot glanced off of its metal casing, causing it to wobble.
That was all Rick needed.
He nailed it through the main camera lens, scoring a direct hit. The drone spun out of control and crashed into the ground amidst a mass of sparks.
Rick hobbled over to Dahlia, dragging one leg behind him. She was face-down, her back covered in blood. Charlie lay on the ground next to her so that his face was next to hers.
He carefully turned her over. Her eyes moved and there was a moment of recognition. Her lips moved but she made no sound. Still, he knew the word she repeated.
Charlie.
Charlie
“He’s right here. It’s all right,” Rick whispered, choking on the words. “I promised I’d take care of him.”
Charlie grabbed her hand, sobbing. She looked at him and smiled, her teeth coated with blood.
Rick laid her head in his lap, pushed strands of hair from her face. “Hang on. Just a little more. We’re getting out of here.”
She coughed and blood gushed from her mouth. Her lips curled in an attempt at a smile. “You …you’re a t … t … terrible … liar …” she rasped. Then she tensed and a panicked look came over her. “Charlie?” she asked, trying to get up.
“Here. I’m here,” Charlie said.
“He’s all right,” Rick said, easing her back to his lap. “I’ve got him. I promise.”
Her eyes opened wider and her body tensed. Then her lips stopped moving and her eyes stared right through him.
Charlie let out a whimpering sob, pressing his mom’s hand on his cheek. Rick pulled her to his chest, not wanting to move from that spot. Not caring if they came and found him there. But he had to care. Charlie was still alive. He had to let go of Dahlia for him.
Carefully, he laid her on the ground and wiped the tears from his face. He took Charlie’s hand and softly pulled him to his feet. It was only a matter of time before soldiers or more drones arrived. Probably seconds, not minutes. He limped over to the other soldier’s gun and stuck it in his belt.
He took stock. There was a knife in his leg. Three bullet holes in his body from what he could tell. His weapon arsenal was two handguns with half their ammo gone. And he was going up against a hundred trained mercenaries and a fleet of kill drones.
As he faced the doors to the lab, waiting for them to open, he tried to look on the bright side.
He didn’t think he would have to endure the pain he was in much longer.
55
Cassie heard the gunfire but didn’t look in its direction.
She’d made the mistake of running through the beds instead of crawling. Her thinking was that she was going to be spotted by cameras either way. Perhaps someone running would be given the benefit of the doubt, rationalized away as a worker who had forgotten to do something important. It seemed a more likely explanation than the truth. Who would believe that a solitary infiltrator would be brazen enough to walk out in the open?
But when she’d turned and seen Keefer confronting Rick and Dahlia at gunpoint, she knew she’d made a mistake. She was too close. If Keefer had turned, there was no doubt he would have recognized her.
Rick charging at Keefer had been unexpected, but it’d given her the distraction she needed. She hoped that whoever watched the security cameras was completely focused on the altercation happening behind her.
When the gunshots went off, she had to stifle a cry. She knew it had to be Rick and Dahlia being executed. But when it turned into what sounded like a firefight, she had to wonder. Regardless of whether Rick had put up a fight or not, the odds were overwhelmingly against him.
It was up to her to stop Keefer.
She made it to her destination, praying that what she needed was still there.
The door to the utility room looked the same as when she’d worked at the lab. She turned the handle, her heart racing as the door opened. Unlocked.
She stepped inside, the overhead lighting flickering on from the motion sensors. The room looked essentially the same as it had years earlier when the lab closed down. The space was mostly a labyrinth of pipes and cables entering from different directions. Half the room used to hold spare office supplies back in the Genysis days, but now it was stacked with food stores. She was happy to see it. The presence of the food and the fact that the door was unlocked hinted at the fact that Keefer’s team had failed to realize the importance of this location, just as Brandon Morris had done.
This was where she’d plugged her sensors into the artery that led out of the mine, the data trunk through which everything had to pass.
It was easy to miss the schematics because the data cable didn’t actually enter the room; they would never have exposed it in such a way. But it did burrow through the solid rock only two feet next to this room’s wall.
Once her suspicion that Morris had s
old out to the military had reached its peak, it’d still taken her two months to figure out how to tap into the cable through the rock wall, and then another month to configure the sensors.
Fortunately, she was working in a mine. Finding someone to explain to her the best methods for cutting through solid rock was easy enough. Pulling it off without anyone knowing had been harder. She felt like the men in one of her favorite movies, The Great Escape, digging a little bit at a time and then carrying the telltale rubble she created in her pockets to drop in a different part of the mine.
But she’d done it, cutting out a section two feet wide and one foot tall right up the trunk. The sensors had been easier to install as they just needed to attach to the outer sheath of the cable, but the coding had been a challenge because she didn’t want them to be discovered. When she was done, she sealed the cavity with a stone façade and left it behind when the lab closed, her insurance policy that Brandon would keep his word.
So much for promises.
She climbed over the pipes, following the familiar path to her secret spot on the wall. There were cables still hanging over the area, just as she’d left them. She pushed them aside and felt a surge of adrenaline as she saw the rock façade was still in place. The section was only eighteen inches off the ground. She kicked at it with her heel, and then bashed it with a can of food; the façade broke into two.
She got on her knees and pulled it away, opening the hole. Inside, there was a soft red glow of the sensor she’d installed there connected to a small laptop. She pulled out the laptop and opened it. The screen lit up, the batteries still strong. It was to be expected since they were designed to last for decades. Still, it was a relief.
But if her plan worked properly, then the computer and batteries only had to last a couple more minutes. After that, they would just be part of the shrapnel tearing through the data trunk.
She opened up the duffel bag and removed the contents she’d stolen from the supply locker.
Grenades. Ten of them.
It would be easy enough to detonate one to set off the others, and the enclosed space would intensify the blast. It was unfortunate that most of the force would direct back into the room, but she was counting on it being powerful enough to severely damage if not sheer the line. For Keefer to use his new weapon, he needed to have access to the outside world. Without it, the computing power he’d created was like having a nuclear bomb without an aircraft or a missile to deliver it.
Before she disabled it, she wanted to warn the world about what was happening here. She had no illusions about her chances of living through the next hour, but at least she could die knowing she’d given the world a chance.
Her fingers rested on the keyboard. What the hell could she put in a short message that would get them to take action?
“Imminent terrorist threat. Massive cyber-attack to hit all major systems worldwide. Take necessary precautions. 100 heavily armed men in Genysis lab/Resurrection Mine, Colorado. Entire town hostage in mine. Colonel Keefer leading. Send military. Terrorists have access to WMD. Dr. Cassandra Baker.”
She looked at the message. There wasn’t time for anything longer. The reference to weapons of mass destruction would hopefully get her message up the national security food chain faster.
She sent it to the national See Something Say Something tip line, but then blasted it to a half-dozen reporters she knew personally. Lastly, she sent it to Whitehouse.gov, hoping the filters would catch the buzzwords and filter it for Secret Service review.
She reread the message, wondering how long it would take someone with any authority to actually see it, and then how much longer it would take for them to actually do anything about it. There wasn’t anything else she could do. She’d warned them. It was up to the world to decide what to do with the information.
She just hoped she could give them more time by taking out Keefer’s connection to the world.
56
Keefer stared at the screen. Estevez, Dahlia and the soldier lay sprawled on the ground. Rick stood in front of the door, his face covered with blood, his clothes shredded, a knife sticking out of his leg. And now the son of a bitch had a gun and was motioning at the camera for Keefer to come out.
But Keefer wouldn’t rise to the bait. He’d already been too careless and taken too many risks. He needed to lock things down tight.
“The drones are ready to deploy, sir,” a soldier said next to him. “Should I––”
“No,” Keefer said. “I don’t want that door opened. One bullet in here could hit a piece of equipment and delay us for hours. Send the drones through the other door and have them go around to the other entrance to the cavern. Set them for lethal. I want him dead.”
The soldier glanced at the screen showing his fallen comrades, and the man who killed them barely able to stand, a handgun his only weapon.
“Sir, I have multiple drones. If we opened the main door, the threat would be neutralized in––”
Keefer pulled his gun from his side and held it to the soldier’s head. “Are you able to follow orders, son?”
“Yes, sir,” the soldier barked. He stepped back and typed instructions into the keypad on his arm. Two of the five drones in the room flew at full speed out of the door that led to the hallway. “They’ll be there in less than two minutes.”
Keefer replaced his gun. “Dr. Kalabi, are we ready?”
The doctor pointed to the keyboard at his station. “Everything is prepared,” he said. “All you need to do is press ENTER and you change the world forever.”
Keefer walked across the room, feeling all eyes on him. He thought of the fifteen people in the room. They would forever be able to say they were present at one of the greatest moments in history. He’d prepared something poignant to say, something fitting, the way Neil Armstrong had uttered his famous words as he stepped onto the moon.
But faced with the moment at hand, he found it impossible to recall the words. His heart beat hard in his chest and he felt almost dizzy as he walked up to the computer. It was almost like he was observing from a distance.
He pointed to the ENTER button on the keyboard for confirmation and Dr. Kalabi nodded.
Keefer looked at the display screen and what he saw there filled him with confidence:
LAUNCH OPERATION RESURRECTION
Keefer reached out with a shaking hand to the keyboard and said the only words that came to him. “God bless the United States of America.”
And he pressed the button.
57
Rick couldn’t believe they didn’t come for him right away. Once he realized the doors weren’t opening, he grabbed Charlie’s hand and limped in the direction of the escape elevator. Charlie pulled back.
“We can’t just leave her here,” he said.
“She did what she did so we had a chance to live,” Rick said. “We’ve got to go. Now.”
He pulled the boy’s hand and this time he didn’t resist.
As they stumbled between beds, Rick spotted people he knew all around him. Friends he’d had all his life. Friends of his parents. Teachers, coaches, just people from town. They were mixed in with all of the out-of-towners, but he couldn’t take more than a few steps without seeing a familiar face.
The gun felt heavy in his hand and his feet grew more sluggish. He was losing a lot of blood. He knew the feeling all too well. He didn’t think he was going to make it much farther.
He thought maybe he could still stop Keefer by shooting the people in the beds, or pulling out the cords. But there were so many of them, stretching all around. Anything he could do wouldn’t make a bit of difference. If he couldn’t stop Keefer, at least he could get Charlie out of there. At least he could save one person.
As he moved through the beds, he saw all the monitors displaying the three-dimensional brain scans shift color. The brilliant multi-hued images flared for a second, bathing the cavern in an eerie glow.
Then, like a chain reaction, the images switched to a
deep pulsating blue.
It was done. They were all connected, and Keefer had the power to destroy the world.
Then, far to his right, a massive explosion went off.
On instinct he dropped to the ground, covering Charlie. The shockwave blew out toward him, slamming beds out of the way. His ears popped from the pressure, leaving a ringing in his ears.
When he stood up, he looked in the direction of the blast. Unbelievably, through the dust and debris in the air, he saw Cassie stand up slowly from the ground, unsteady on her feet. He shouted for her but his voice sounded distant, like he was under water.
She started to run away from the source of the blast, at an angle to them, but toward the elevator.
“Cassie!” he called. He limped her direction. If she could take Charlie, they might escape together. “Cassie!” He waved his arms but she didn’t see him.
He felt a tug on his hand.
“C’mon, Sheriff.” Charlie said. “Don’t give up.”
It was enough for Rick to dig and find another gear, one maybe not accessible to most people, but accessible to a combat Marine. With a grunt, he lurched forward, using the line of beds along the way to support him. But Cassie was going too fast. They’d never catch her.
“Go, Charlie,” he said. “Catch up to that woman.”
Charlie pulled harder on his hand. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to. Go,” Rick said, pulling away from him.
Charlie hesitated, then turned and ran. Rick sagged to one knee and then the other. Gasping for breath.
He fell and it felt like the floor had opened up and swallowed him whole. His eyes closed and there was nothing but darkness and a floating sensation. The pain was gone. All he felt was a warmth spreading from inside him.
He had a recollection of a cold winter’s day when he was just a kid, maybe nine or ten. There was snow, but he was bundled up nice and warm. His mom was next to him and they were drinking hot chocolate. She laughed easily at his jokes as the snow drifted down around him in giant flakes. It was just the two of them. With nowhere to go and nothing to do. He wished he could stay there forever.