Inferno Station (Helltroopers Book 1)

by Isaac Stone

  The image began to form into the head of a man. It was an older man with a shaved head. He was fair of skin and his lips pursed. The image seemed familiar to Ash and he couldn’t place it. This had to be some kind of message from the corporation. No matter how much he hated EAC, it was important to listen if they were to get out alive.

  “I congratulate you for coming this far,” the face said to them. “You are the first people the corporation has hired to make it this far. No doubt the addition of Barbara Ann to your team has made the journey more enlightening. Of course, you haven’t reached me yet and there are many traps awaiting you on the way down.”

  It was at that moment Ash recognized the face that stared down at him. It was the same face in the image transmitted to him from the corporate contact. This was Simon Haddo!

  None of them knew what to say.

  “By now you will have figured out the reasons for the various levels on your way to apprehend me,” Haddo continued. “Aren’t they delightful? Can you believe any one person could have come up with these places? I see you were able to access the images from the database too. I trust you found it pleasant. The screams of the dying can be pleasing to encounter if you are in the right mood.”

  The image winked out and the helmet went dark.

  “He’s the one responsible for this place!” Theo shouted as he lashed out with his fist and punched the helmet out of Barbara Ann’s hands, sending it clattering across the floor.

  “Up until now, I was ready to turn around and go back,” Costa told them. “Now I want to get that bastard personally.”

  Still, Ash felt the face was familiar. He’d seen it somewhere before, not just from the picture sent to him by the corporation. He stood in place and starred at the empty spot where the image was a few minutes ago. The air in the vestibule felt warm in his imagination. His hair was full of sweat and all he could think about was finding that taunting asshole and bringing him back to the corporation. Once paid, he would start with his next plans.

  “Did that man build this place?” Kris demanded from Barbara Ann. “You seem to know a lot more than you’re telling us.” She leveled her gun at Barbara Ann and glared at the android.

  “He wasn’t the one responsible for Inferno Station,” she explained. “But he may have taken advantage of it. I have limited information on him. You know just as much as I do about Simon Haddo.”

  “They did say he wasn’t here very long, isn’t that correct?” Jack asked. “All these symbols on the wall…they don’t look that old. You think he had something to do with them?”

  “The only thing I know for sure is that we don’t get paid until we bring Simon Haddo back intact to the corporation,” Ash explained. “I don’t want to leave unless I know I’ll be paid, if they want our silence they’ll have to pay extra. Are we all in agreement? Because whoever wants to make their way back to the Thelema can do it on their own and I’ll split their part of the bonus with everyone else.”

  There were a few moments of silence. “You sound pretty determined,” Makulah, told him. “So what are we supposed to do with Ester?” He looked down at her body.

  “I don’t like leaving her behind, but we can’t be slowed down with a body. We have her personal effects and whatever else we need to prove what happened. If she had family, we’ll make sure they get her share. And no, we won’t split her share among us. She died for the mission and her family deserves to get it.”

  “What if we can’t find any family?” Kris asked. “I don’t recall she ever talked about one.” She kicked her useless VR goggles to one side of the vestibule.

  “Then we’ll give her share to some charity. I’m sure there was someplace she donated money.”

  They paused to look and remember her for a few more minutes.

  “So what kinds of nightmares are in store for un next synth?” Ash demanded from Barbara Ann, who still held the gun and ammo. “Some kind of killer worm?”

  “No, that’s somewhere else,” she told him. “I don’t think you’ll find the next level much of a problem, but see for yourself.”

  Ash strapped his helm back in place, opened the entrance door to the level and walked inside, gun level with the floor.

  14

  Ash nearly dropped his gun when he walked into the next room.

  It was filled from floor to ceiling with art objects, gemstone encrusted jewelry, and priceless paintings. He recognized some of the art objects and was surprised to see them in the room. Some he didn’t, but there was no disguising the intricate work that had gone into their creation. He walked down the center aisle and was blinded by the glare on some of the golden crowns and diadems stacked in one corner. Never before had he seen such wealth.

  “Wow, boss,” Costa exclaimed behind him. “This can’t be some kind of VR illusion. Or is it? Why the hell would we be allowed in this treasure house?”

  “They’ll find a way too kill all of us,” Kris pointed out. “Do you see that statue over there? It’s made out of one piece of jade. I heard about it once. Vanished from a private collection a hundred years ago. I’m with Theo, no way they let us walk after seeing this.”

  “Don’t touch any of it,” Barbara Ann warned. “Keep moving. This level isn’t very large. We’ll come to the exit door very soon.”

  “Maybe we just snatch this and call it our payday,” suggested Jack as he looked at the vast glittering piles, “Enough here to pay off any assassin they send looking for us.”

  Ash looked down the aisle and saw it not twenty yards away.

  “All of these treasured items,” Barbara Ann pointed out, “will kill you. One touch and you’ll die in the most disgusting way imaginable.”

  “You’re serious?” Makulah asked her. “Why? Is there some point to this? How could it be torture?” He stopped and whistled at a diamond ring on a stand in front of him.

  “People were locked in here with food and water,” she explained. “How long do you think the average person will last before they have to try? And what happens when they drop dead? The next person won’t touch anything for a long time. But suppose they do? Eventually a person will go mad around these valuables because they can’t touch them. It’s the whole point of this level.”

  “And I’d hoped it was someone’s private collection,” Jack spoke. He paused to admire a huge oil painting. “The builders of this place thought of everything, didn’t they?”

  Ash was tempted to touch something, just to find out. What if she was lying? He really didn’t trust Barbara Ann. This would be the perfect way to make sure they didn’t mess with someone’s treasure house. However, it would gain him nothing to test her claims. They needed to get Haddo. A booby-trapped treasure room would be the final line of defense against anyone who broke into a hidden fortress. After the literal hell they’d slogged through, the temptation was incredibly strong.

  “We’ll keep moving,” Ash said to her. “Everybody listen to the synth. I don’t know if she’s telling us the truth, but I see no reason to doubt her. Too easy to walk into a place like this and not come out again.”

  He soon reached the door and waited for the rest of the crew to catch up. Once they were around him, Ash opened it and went down the next staircase.

  The staircase ended at a room that was lit with faint lighting. Although they had their visors up, Ash stopped the team with one hand held up in the air. The room smelled of unwashed bodies and people in distress. In front of them were small cooking fires and people huddled around them. All wore dirty clothes and no one appeared to be older than twenty-one.

  There had to be some kind of circulation system that took the smoke out of the level, but it wasn’t that efficient, as there was a haze all through the place. Ash kept his gun up and moved slowly into the mass of people. On the other side of the room, which appeared to be fifty yards across, was the exit. None of the people inside made any movement toward it.

  The people in the room appeared to be in a trance. They looked up at Team Omega, b
ut barely said anything. Most of them huddled around the fires and stared into the flames. A few wore the remains of expensive suits, but most wore work clothes in tatters. Several cooked meat over the fires and some slept on dirty blankets. Ash couldn’t figure out why they were in this place, but each of these levels were designed to torture people, perhaps this was the result of constant agony, he couldn’t tell.

  “What is this?” Kris asked him. “Do you think these people would know where we can find Haddo?” She swept the floor with her eyes and tried to make visual contact with someone.

  “This would be one place where you could hide him,” Makulah brought up. “There must be hundreds of people in this place. You could stick him anywhere.” He kept his gun up, but didn’t feel threatened by any of the people on this level. They all seemed to be in a stupor. Still, it paid to be ready to rock at a moment’s notice.

  Ash stopped in the middle of the floor with his crew around him and looked at the mob of people who were in the room. Many of them appeared to be sick and dying. This resembled a refugee camp he’d seen in one of the many war-torn areas he traveled through while doing another job for a corporation. People with no hope or any desire to get out of their situation.

  Then he noted a man leaning on a staff that stood and watched a fire. Could this be someone who would know where Haddo was? He needed to ask.

  Holding his gun tight to his chest, Ash walked up to the man. At first, he didn’t seem to acknowledge him. Ash could tell the man was in his fifties. He appeared to be gaunt and wore the remains of a business suit. Form what Ash could tell, this was someone who was important at one time. He stood next to him and cleared his throat.

  Finally, the old man turned slowly and regarded Ash. He stared at Ash with grey eyes and through a beard that was salt and pepper. Their eyes locked.

  “Where did you come from?” the man asked him. “I see that the doors work for you, but there is no solace here. Go back to where you belong before you are noticed, they’ll only make it worse if you resist.”

  “I’m EAC security,” Ash explained. “We’re looking for a man named Simon Haddo. Have you ever heard of him?” He tried to hold the man’s attention as best as he could.

  “Haddo,” the man said to him. “I seem to recall a man who passed through here by that name. He was on his way to the bottom of the pit. The doors worked for him too.” His hands shook as he talked to Ash.

  “Was he alone?” Ash asked him.

  “He claimed to have a great treasure with him, from the great room” he said. “Some of us tried to carry things out, when the doors would open for a time, inviting us in. Didn’t matter, they all died before coming back. You didn’t touch that treasure did you?” He seemed concerned.

  “No, sir,” Ash told him. “We were told the treasure was poisoned. Anyone who touches it dies. Did you say Haddo came through here? How long ago?”

  “I don’t recall, it was awhile back. Time is funny here.”

  The man stepped one foot back and turned to see the rest of Team Omega with Ash. He seemed excited for some reason.

  “This is wonderful,” he told Ash. “You can help us get out of here. Give us your armor and weapons.” He appeared serious.

  “I’d love to help you when we return,” Ash told the man. “But first I need to locate Haddo. Now if you will just tell me more about him….”

  It was that moment he noticed everyone in the room had turned and looked at them. Slowly, the people on the floor stood up and began to make their way to his crew. Ash watched them drag themselves across the floor to them. They were soon the subject of everyone’s attention.

  “Give those weapons to us!” the man screamed at Ash.

  “Let’s get out of here!” Ash yelled to the rest of his team. “We have to get to the door!” He turned and ran to it with his team behind.

  As their boots thudded on the floor, the team found itself blocked by the people who moved in front of them. It wasn’t too hard to push any one of them out of the way, but more and more piled on as they came closer to the door. By the time they reached the door, it was covered by twenty of the people in the room, who had grins on their faces.

  “Move out of our way!” Ash yelled as he fired off a round in the air from his impact gun. But they stayed in place and refused to get out of the way. He did not relish slaughtering such a ragged mob of desperate people, he had enough trouble sleeping at night as it was, but it looked like these poor wretches weren’t going to give him any other choice.

  “Do not hinder our passage!” Barbara Ann’s voice emerged from behind them, modulated somehow. It had a strength that Ash did not realize she possessed. This was a different kind of Barbara Ann than he’d seen before.

  The mob of refugees and desperate people began to move back and out of the way. In minutes, they’d cleared the passage to the door. Ash watched in astonishment as they shuffled back to the walls of the room and made an opening around them. He kept his gun level just to be careful.

  He turned with the rest of his crew to see Barbara Ann as she walked up from the rear, her sparkle green eyes now ablaze. This was a transformation they didn’t expect as she strode forward with the spare gun in one hand and ammo sling in the other. But the mob wasn’t afraid of what she carried. They’d shown no fear when the team aimed their guns at them. It was the physical presence of Barbara Ann who terrified them.

  As she came forward, they began to drop to their knees. Scores of people, both sexes, fell to the ground with their hands held up in supplication. Many of them trembled as she walked past them. Anyone who was in her way moved quick to clear a path for her. She never made contact with a single one of the masses, so petrified of her they were.

  Barbara Ann walked up to the astonished Team Omega who stood at the entrance to the next level. None of them knew what to say. This was a side of her they didn’t know. Even Ash was in complete shock over the way the mob reacted to her.

  “I believe we can go forward now,” Barbara Ann said to them.

  Ash nodded and opened the door. In led to another staircase that vanished downward to another level in the darkness.

  “You aren’t worried anyone of them will follow us down?” Ash asked her before he went through the door. Barbara Ann had her gaze fixed on the whimpering mob behind them.

  “They won’t even think about it,” she told him. “Come, we need to reach the next level before it’s too late. He knows we’ve reached the passage. Haddo will make other plans.” She walked past Ash and led the way down the stairs.

  “You have an excellent crew,” Barbara Ann mentioned to him. “I applaud you on selecting the best people you could find.”

  “I spent a long time on the selection,” Ash replied. “As you can see, it paid off. I’ll have a hard time replacing Ester. This is the first time I’ve lost someone. I’ve worried about this happening.” He shook his head and tried not to think about the woman who’d been such a key to the success of his team.

  “So where are we headed now?” he asked the android.

  “The end of the road,” she responded. “If we don’t capture Haddo there, he’ll find some way to escape. It’s why I’m in a hurry to get us down to the next level. And, by the way, this is the largest one of them.”

  The staircase emerged into another small vestibule that had a closed door on one side. Once again, the cryptic symbols were sketched all over the walls. This time they covered the ceiling too. As before, the paint was fresh, mere hours old.

  “I think we’re supposed to take this as a greeting,” Makulah observed. “Hey, synth, don’t you read this language? What does it say?” He stared directly at her when he spoke.

  “Abandon hope ye who enter here,” she told them. “The rest of the symbols are to counteract the ones we saw earlier.”

  Kris laughed. “What does he mean?” she said. “We’ve already been through hell. How could anything be worse?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” Barbara Ann spoke
to her.

  “Really?” Kris shot back. “You know what skinjob I’m a little tired of your condescension. Maybe you should tell us a little bit more before we go in that place. What the hell do you know?” She scowled at the android.

  “I know what happened with Francisco when you were nineteen,” Barbara Ann told her. “I’m sure it felt good to watch him die gasping once you’d managed to get out from under him and find a weapon.”

  “Shut up,” Kris growled at her. The look confirmed everything Barbara Ann said.

  “Makulah,” Barbara Ann turned to him, “do you want me to talk about your drinking and where you ended up two weeks before Ash hired you?”

  “No!” he yelled at her.

  “Perhaps I should mention the missing funds from Costa’s last employer,” she turned to him. “I’m sure Ash would like to know your part in it.” His face turned bitter.

  “And then we have innocent Jack,” she spoke. “Just how much do you spend on thrash injections every time you put into port? Could this be the real reason you are always short on cash and have to borrow money from Ash before your next bonus? Want me to talk about what you did for your dealer last time you were short funds?”

  “My dear Theo,” she continued, “Shall we talk about how you got those scars?”

  “Alright!” Ash yelled at her. “All of us have things we’ve done in the past we don’t want to talk about. I get it, you have detailed personal files on all of us, but I don’t see what difference it makes right now. EAC is backing our mission into an EAC station, and saddled us with a high end custom synth using a bogus raid, also EAC sponsored. I get it, the corporation has us all stitched up. Whatever. The important thing is getting Haddo and taking him back. Yes, I see there is a lot about you that none of us knows. For instance, what the hell was that bunch on the last level and how did you get them to back off?”

  “Liars and traitors,” she told them. “I know what they did to survive.”

  “Better keep being useful synth,” growled Ash, his sentiment seemingly backed up by the rest of the team as they crowded in on the synth, their guns menacing, “We have played our parts in whatever this is, so you keep things moving and we don’t have to kick this relationship up a notch.”