by Lee Driver
“Food,” Dagger yelled. The Hover took a sudden turn at the courtyard and stopped several doors from the bench where Dagger’s gym bag lay. They climbed off the Hover and watched as it returned to the garage. Once inside, the garage door slid shut. The building where the Hover deposited them was a bright yellow which almost appeared to glow in the dark. A neon sign of a glass and a platter of food flashed in the window. It looked like any downtown eatery they might find at home.
“I wish the sun would come out again,” Sara said. Immediately the moon started a descent and the sun rose above the three- story buildings. Street lights snapped off and water puddles disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.
“This is just too weird.” There was an intelligence here that made Dagger a little uneasy. The neon sign in the restaurant’s window snapped off but suddenly music and laugher spilled out along with the scent of grilled beef. Dagger pulled open the door and halted. People were seated at tables, standing at a stone bar. Waitresses were delivering platters to tables. “Holograms?”
Sara sighed. She would even eat a steak about now. “Yes, even the food.”
“Damn.” Dagger released his hold on the door and stepped back into the courtyard. “Well, my lady, I can treat you to a power bar, a banana and a bottle of water.” Dagger started across the courtyard.
Sara held him back. “Do you hear something?”
Dagger didn’t hear the usual insect sounds nor birds. He didn’t hear dogs barking or children playing. “No. What do you hear?”
They wandered to the middle of the courtyard, eyes scanning the buildings, bodies slowly turning in a circle yet they kept close enough for their fabrics to touch. Like mirror images, they each slowly pulled their weapons and held them down at their sides.
“Whining,” Sara whispered.
“Kids?”
“No, gears. It’s coming from something small and it’s moving closer.”
“Never a dull moment,” Dagger whispered. “Home sweet home.”
From one of the entryways appeared an army tank in camouflage paint. It was a replica, like a remote-controlled toy a kid would own, chugging across the walkway onto the courtyard and toward them.
Sara smiled and leaned down as though it were an approaching puppy. “Isn’t it cute?”
A turret popped out of the top and turned toward them. Dagger yelled, “NO, SARA,” and pulled her toward a pillar. A blast exploded from the tank pulverizing the pillar just as Dagger and Sara moved to the next one.
Another tank appeared from another entryway. Dagger pulled the slide back on the Kimber and told Sara, “There’s a red light on the underside. It’s a power pack. Aim for it.”
They separated, Dagger moving to his left, Sara to the right. Soon, four more tanks appeared. Another pillar exploded showering Dagger with pieces of marble. He hit the ground and rolled to his left, aiming for the underside and losing his sunglasses in the process. He fired. One bullet bounced off. The next one hit the power pack. The tank ground to a stop. Dagger ran for the bench and dove for the gym bag. He grabbed it just as a blast shattered the marble bench. He fumbled in the gym bag for a clip and hoped he brought enough ammo. After shoving a clip in each pocket, he slipped his arms through the straps of the gym bag and carried it like a backpack. More blasts and gunshots echoed through the compound.
“What the hell? These are nothing more than toys.” Dagger slipped behind one of the tanks and kicked it against a wall. It bounced off and turned its turret on Dagger. “Shit. Damn thing is armor-plated.” Dagger didn’t have a move that wouldn’t put him in its crosshairs. He saw a movement to his right. Sara leaped in front of him, rolled to her left and fired. The tank ground to a halt. Sara flashed a look of sheer enjoyment at him. For a brief moment he wondered if someone were testing their capabilities.
Testing. Why did he pick that word?
Dagger ran for the next pillar with a tank in pursuit. He saw another tank bite the dust as Sara succeeded in hitting the power pack. He marveled at her accuracy enhanced by her visual acuity. What was even more marvelous was how the jumpsuit she wore hit every curve of her body. She couldn’t possibly be wearing underwear.
A tank appeared to his right having somehow snuck up on him as he was admiring Sara’s attributes. He dove to his left, rolled several times and came up shooting, stopping another tank. “The stairs.” He pointed to a short flight of stairs and waited until she was safely down and into the building. Dagger followed close behind, a blast showering him with stone fragments before he pulled open a door and lunged to safety.
“It can’t come down stairs, right?” Sara asked as she tried to catch her breath.
“I highly doubt it.”
A clanking sound came from the stairwell.
Dagger frowned. “Well, at least it can’t open doors.” He studied the room they had entered. It was an elaborate maze of cubicles. Lights from the ceilings were almost too bright. “We should be safe now.”
A blast hit the door blowing a fifteen inch hole making an opening for the tank to chug through.
“Oh, shit.” Dagger tore off down the hall and through an open doorway into the labyrinth. They wove their way around cubicles, stopping a safe distance from where they had left the tank. They sat on the floor behind one of the desks. Dagger wiped rock dust and dirt from his skin and clothes. Sara looked as though she had just stepped out of the shower and slipped into clean, crisp clothes. Not a mark on her. How the hell did she do that?
Sara reached up and touched the bare desk. “That’s strange. No keyboard.”
“Computer is probably voice-activated.” Dagger unzipped the gym bag and handed Sara a bottle of water and took the same for himself. “Why aren’t those tanks holograms?” Dagger whispered. “And who sent them?”
“I was going to ask you the same question.”
“Me?”
Sara stared at him as one perfectly arched eyebrow crawled up her forehead. “How did you know it had a power pack and where it was located?”
Dagger shrugged. “It’s mechanical. Everything has a power pack.”
“And the bright colors outside that look too artificial? Certainly explains why you prefer boring black and gray. You’ve been here before.”
He unscrewed the cap on the water bottle and chugged half of the contents, ignoring her prodding. Truth was, Dagger didn’t know why some things seemed familiar. Neurons must be firing up in the back recesses of his brain. Worse yet, he had a vague recollection of not only the tanks but also the residential target range. They were fleeting memories, flashes that were there and then disappeared. He shook it off, jammed the water bottle back into the gym bag and moved quietly through the maze with Sara close behind. Chairs were turned as though someone had just run out to get a sandwich and would be returning soon. Dried sticks of what must have once been flowers jutted from vases, remnants of dried petals scattered on the desk, the water long evaporated from the vases. Cubicle walls were free of posted notes, family pictures, and schedules.
“What’s that?” Sara pointed at a round hole in the floor about the width of a coffee can.
“Individual incinerators. You noticed there aren’t any garbage cans. I haven’t been able to find one scrap of printer paper to give me a hint what the hell they were working on down here. My only guess is that they were careful not to print anything, that everything might have been kept on a hard drive somewhere.”
“So we have to find a mainframe.”
CHAPTER 30
Dagger leaned against the wall and washed his hands over his face. Sara had followed him into what might be a trap. Neither one may make it out alive.
Sara’s eyes narrowed and she cocked her head as though sizing up his response. She wasn’t going to let up. “Why did you say home sweet home? Is there something you’re not telling me? The numbers on that metal piece in your head had the coordinates to this place.”
Dagger stared at her for several seconds. Yes, her skills came in handy, b
ut how could he live with himself if something happened to her? “I know. I thought once I got here everything would fall into place. Bits and pieces look familiar but that’s it. I remember standing on the cobblestone and staring up at the sky at some point in my life. Descending that mile of stairs didn’t seem familiar until I reached the bottom and looked up.” He raked stray hairs back. In the melee he not only lost his sunglasses but also the band around his ponytail and the bandage from his neck. His fingers gingerly touched the stitches. He wanted more than anything to rip the computer chip from his body. Dagger rustled through the gym bag and pulled out a couple power bars and handed one to Sara.
“Thanks. I haven’t eaten since I had chicken earlier today.”
Dagger stared at her. “You walked into a KFC nude?” He tried to slap that vision out of his mind.
“No,” Sara said with a laugh. “The wolf stole it and I ate it in a secluded place. I also found a body.”
“What?” Dagger tore off a piece of the power bar.
Sara kept her voice low as she told him about bathing in the pond and finding a car at the bottom with a body in the front seat. “I took the license plate, or rather the wolf took the license plate, and dropped it at the foot of a sheriff who was called out by the farmer whose lunch I stole.”
“The farmer calls out the authorities because his food was stolen?”
“The farmer thought I was a coyote or something I guess.”
Dagger started to speak but Sara held up one hand. She cocked her head. The intense look in her eyes told Dagger she was using her enhanced hearing. She placed a hand on the floor, as though feeling for a vibration.
They quickly finished their power bars. Dagger dropped the wrappers into the hole in the floor. “Where do you think it is?”
“It sounds like it’s idling, like it’s waiting for us to make the first move.”
They moved cautiously to the opposite side of the room and stepped out into the hallway. The tank was waiting for them.
“MOVE!” Dagger pushed Sara back into the room as a computer and desk behind them exploded in a barrage of wood and metal. He fired off a shot but the bullet bounced off of the armor. They wove around cubicles as debris rained down around them. Dagger couldn’t stop long enough to get a shot off.
“How is it tracking us?” Sara yelled.
“Probably thermal imaging.”
They tore down a hallway, around a corner, and into another large room with cubicles.
“Wait.” Dagger counted the floor tiles from the point where they were standing to the hallway. He handed the gym bag to Sara, pulled out a knife and pried the tile up. Sliding it aside, he said, “Wait here.” He jumped down the four feet into the utility space beneath the floor. Dagger counted the tiles overhead. When he reached what he thought was the hallway, he removed the tile, leaving an opening in the floor. Dagger returned to the office, climbed out, and replaced the tile. “Now let’s see how badly it wants us.”
They moved through the office to the next doorway. Dagger peered around the corner. The tank was waiting near the first doorway. “Wait here.” He moved out into the hallway at a run. A loud whining erupted from the end of the hall as the tank tore off after him. He darted through the next doorway as heat from a blast rushed past him. A quick peek into the hallway revealed that the tank hadn’t slowed down any. It was headed toward the opening in the floor. Dagger had the Kimber ready. The panel to the right of him exploded. “Damn. I’m going to rip that fucker apart screw by screw.” But the tank stopped. It had detected Sara’s thermal image. But where? Dagger stole another peek to see that the tile behind the tank had been removed. Sara was in the utility space. He had to smile. Her mind was always clicking. Next, the tile to the right of the tank dropped away. Slowly the tank’s turret turned. It was searching for Sara. Would it be smart enough to check beneath it? At some point the tank had to run out of ammo. The tank’s turret made a sudden 180 degree turn.
“SARA!” Dagger called out. He hesitated not wanting to fire for fear of hitting Sara. The turret turned back to him. Fire erupted from the tank’s gun. The tank advanced oblivious to the opening in front of it and just as it tipped into the empty space in front of it, Sara fired at the power pack. There was a crash and clatter as the tank hit concrete.
Sara pulled herself out of the utility space. “One less energy pack.” She replaced the tiles that had been removed.
“Good job but a stupid move. I could have shot you.” Dagger turned and stalked away. He pushed through an exit door and back out into the courtyard where he dropped the gym bag onto a bench under the overhang and sat down. A soft rain dotted the cobblestone as angry clouds drifted across the sky.
Sara took a seat next to him. “How can it be raining?”
“Sprinkler systems. Gives the illusion of the outdoors so everyone who was trapped down here didn’t suffer from reality withdrawal. Pretty clever.”
“Can I have my water bottle, please?”
Dagger downed two aspirins with his remaining water, then opened another bottle. He rationed out two more protein bars and settled back. He could feel Sara’s eyes silently prying answers. She was patient to a point. His hand again moved to his neck, feeling the scar from the incision.
“Whatever is in your neck, I think the answers are here,” Sara said. “Doc said the scar tissue is at least twenty-five years old. You don’t remember being here as a kid?”
Dagger shook his head.
Sara reached out and pulled his hand from his neck. “You aren’t sure of anything prior to five years ago?”
Dagger said nothing.
“Maybe these holograms are your memories triggered when you entered the facility,” Sara suggested
Dagger said nothing.
“And I think you suspect the same thing.”
Dagger still said nothing.
Sara studied the buildings across the street, the potted plants, the skies which lit up with artificial lightning. “It feels like the entire place is alive. But it appears to be for someone else’s amusement.”
“Well, I hope we run into whoever it is.” Dagger’s bottle hovered before his lips.
Sara studied the buildings more closely. “Do you think we are being watched? After all, someone sent the tank outside, right where we were standing.”
“Cameras don’t work, remember? I scrambled them all,” Dagger said. He tilted his head back and checked the overcast sky. “Of course, maybe it isn’t a sky at all but a window.”
“How big do you think this town is?”
Memories flashed through Dagger’s brain. Just entering this underground city appeared to have opened up wounds he didn’t know he had. He wasn’t sure if the memories were his or if he was being bombarded with illusions of memories.
A rainbow stretched across the sky as sunlight broke through the clouds. The drizzle quickly ended and the sounds of birds and insects filled the air.
“It’s like someone is sitting in front of a control panel pushing buttons. Cut the rain, start the birds. Even the temperature seems to be controlled, not to mention the oxygen.” Sara stood, folding the wrapper from the protein bar into a neat square. She looked around for a garbage can. There was a marble pillar nearby, its opening as wide as the opening in the floor they had found next to the desk. She peered into it. “Think this is an incinerator?”
“Yes.” Dagger stood, slipped his arms through the handles of the gym bag, and hefted it onto his back like a backpack. “Let’s check out the rest of the town, but this time, let’s walk.”
Although the sun shone brightly overhead, there was no mistaking they were below ground. Perhaps it was the dark cobblestone or the stone walls in the distance that made them feel confined.
Sara said, “I may not like crowds but there is something about one mile of rock on top of my head that leaves an uneasy feeling.”
Dagger searched the courtyard behind them. They hadn’t been to the park yet. Then he looked ahead where the larg
e chrome and marble buildings stretched three stories high. “Just don’t know where to start.”
A large lit screen appeared to drop from the sky a few feet in front of them. It was a computerized map of the area. They took a step back and waited.
“This is really bizarre. I am not liking it at all.” Sara slowly approached. “How is this happening?”
A flashing red dot on the map marked You Are Here. The underground city was no more than five square blocks. They were currently in the central part of the city. Dotted throughout the map were residential areas, training camps, schools, the park, restaurants, a gym, clinic. A small inset map revealed that one floor below was The Lab.
“The Lab,” Sara said.
“Very strange. Everything down here is identical to a normal town. It has streets and a sewer system.” Dagger’s finger tapped a spot on the map that marked the Director’s Residence. “Let’s go check out this guy’s life.”
“Sure.”
They dodged puddles as rain water trickled down to grated drains. The street had that just-washed smell to it. Dagger remembered seeing a waterfall in the park but that might have been a hologram, too, for all he knew. Except for the intermittent sounds of nature, the area was desolate and quiet. There was a rhythm to the birds and insect noises, as if the sounds were taped on a loop and replayed. Maybe Sara was right. Someone was pushing the right buttons, someone who knew they were there. He didn’t like that feeling.
They passed marble buildings with chrome railings, passed what looked like back alleys. For all the brightness that the sun churned out, there still were pockets of shadows.
Butterflies swarmed planters filled with flowers. Dagger opened his mouth but before he could ask, Sara said, “Holograms.” They turned a corner and stretched in front of them was a flat marble building that looked more like an elaborate mausoleum. Marble statues watched over a garden. Birds dodged around a bird bath. Flowering trees sprouted from marble urns.