The Fusion Cage (Warner & Lopez Book 2)

by Dean Crawford

  In one simple move Mary would have proved the validity of her fusion cage and secured her place in history. Now, pained and injured, Aaron was filled with a fury that he had not felt since his youth amid the steaming forests of Vietnam, fighting hand to hand in the tunnels beneath the jungle against a much feared and hated enemy.

  Aaron surveyed the controls one last time, and as an image of Ethan Warner flickered darkly through his mind he re–activated the solar array and re–set the controls to their default settings. The panel lit up before him as the control system re–booted itself and almost immediately he heard the sound of a siren going off somewhere in the distance, from the tower itself, as the heliostat mirrors suddenly hummed into life and their motors began turning the mirrors toward the tower.

  Two birds, one stone.

  In minutes, the heating chamber of the tower would be bombarded by the sun’s rays reflected by nearly two thousand gigantic mirrors, and every memory of the fusion cage, Mary Meyer, Ethan Warner and Nicola Lopez would be quite literally vaporized from the face of the earth.

  Aaron turned and limped from the control centre to his waiting car. He glanced up the road and saw the distant police motorcade still a couple of miles away. Without hesitation he climbed into the vehicle, which drove out of the compound and away to the north.

  *

  Lopez ducked down as Assim Khan leaped to his feet, blood spilling from his chest and hate radiating from his features as he swung for Lopez. His fist brushed through her hair as she drove a straight right into the wound in his chest.

  Pain wracked the assassin’s features and he cried out as he stumbled backward, struggling to stay focused on Lopez as she lunged forward with another roundhouse left. Assim blocked her blow with one solid forearm, a dull but terrible pain shuddering along the length of the bone. Lopez cried out as she was suddenly driven backward.

  Lopez jerked left and raised her right arm, catching Assim’s arm under her own. She closed her arm over his and yanked her left knee up into the assassin’s ribcage. Assim grunted and Lopez felt brittle bones somewhere in the man’s chest crunch against her knee cap.

  Assim rallied, a fist flashing into Lopez’s vision and smacking across her cheek. She reeled away, and before she could regain her balance the assassin slammed one foot into the inside of her left knee. The leg buckled with a lance of bright pain that bolted up her thigh as Lopez crashed down onto the unforgiving floor.

  The assassin swivelled expertly on one foot, one leg smashing down on top of Lopez to pin her in place as in Assim’s hand appeared a wicked blade that flashed toward her. Lopez brought one leg up against Assim’s chest and caught the assassin in freefall with the blade a hair’s breadth from her throat. Dull pain throbbed though her skull as she struggled against the weight and insane strength of her assailant as the tip of the blade touched her throat.

  ‘You have fought bravely,’ he said in a sombre tone, ‘but now I must protect myself. And for that, you have to die.’

  Assim leaned his weight into the blade.

  And then a gunshot smacked the hot air.

  The bullet slammed upward through Assim’s hip, shattering bone and ploughing through his internal organs before bursting from his shoulder in a fine mist of bright blood. Lopez smashed the blade clear of her throat as Assim shuddered from the blast and rolled onto his side.

  Ethan burst into the heating chamber and stared at Lopez. ‘Are you okay?!’

  ‘About time!’ Lopez gasped.

  Assim Khan groaned as Lopez looked at him. ‘Christ, won’t this asshole ever die?’

  Ethan glanced at Mary, who was standing over the fusion cage, and then he saw something outside of the chamber. A brilliant, blinding flare of light that began to grow as though a star had suddenly burst into life out on the desert plains.

  ‘The mirrors are working!’ he yelled.

  Ethan grabbed Lopez and propelled her toward the stairwell as he dashed to Mary’s side. ‘Move, now!’

  ‘No! I must start it up!’

  ‘It’s too late!’ Ethan insisted. ‘We’re about to be fried! Come on!’

  Mary tried to activate the device and she hit a switch that lit up with a green glow before Ethan yanked her away from the fusion cage and they ran for the stairwell.

  A terrible, fearsome heat seared the air as Ethan followed Mary and pushed her down ahead of him. They dashed down the stairs together, the heat in the chamber swelling with a remorseless power that seemed to burn the air around Ethan. He felt his eyes dry out, his skin seared and then he dashed through a series of heavy doors and saw Lopez slam them shut behind him.

  *

  Assim Khan staggered to his feet and grasped for the stairwell. The metal touched his hand and he saw his skin slough off in a bloody mess. He turned, delirious with pain and blood loss, barely able to see in the searing heat as a brilliant halo of light burned into his retina with the strength of a thousand suns.

  To one side, he saw Huck Seaver’s body consumed by flames, thick smoke billowing from the corpse as it burned.

  To the other, he saw the fusion cage burst into life.

  Assim screamed as a fearsome heat ignited his clothes and then his skin, as he felt his flesh and his bone seared by thousands of degrees of pure energy. With the last remaining synapses functioning in his body he dashed for the open air of the ledge outside, but he barely made two steps before his body was charred into an unrecognisable black mess of bone and tissue that burst into a flaming pyre and collapsed, smouldering ashes billowing out over the tower’s ledge and into the desert sky.

  *

  Ethan staggered out into the open air beneath the huge tower, just in time to hear the sound of dozens of shotguns, rifles and pistols being cocked.

  He looked up to see a dozen or so police cars, their lights flickering with brilliant colors before them and countless officers glaring at him down the barrels of their weapons.

  Ethan dropped the pistol he still held in one hand and slowly raised his hands, Mary beside him doing the same as he watched Lopez standing with her hands in the air, her dark hair billowing in the hot desert wind.

  ‘On your knees, hands behind your heads!’

  The voice bellowed at them from a loud hailer and Ethan obeyed, placing his hands atop his head as he knelt down on the hard desert soil and watched as two FBI agents advanced toward them, pistols pointing at Ethan and Mary.

  ‘My daughter,’ Mary cried out. ‘Is she okay?’

  The two agents said nothing. One of them was a young guy, late twenties Ethan guessed, who covered his partner as she advanced. The partner was a little older, with long auburn hair and a determined expression, all cold blue eyes and no smiles.

  ‘Ethan Warner,’ she said as she looked at him. ‘I’ve been wanting to talk to you for quite a while, but you keep avoiding me?’

  Ethan managed a shrug and a grin.

  ‘I won’t avoid you anymore, let’s be friends. What’s your name?’

  Special Agent Hannah Ford offered Ethan a tight grin devoid of warmth as she produced a set of hand cuffs.

  ‘My name is: you’re under arrest, asshole.’

  ‘That from your mother’s side?’

  Ethan winced as Hannah Ford slammed the cuffs brutally hard around his wrists.

  ***

  XLIV

  FBI Field Office, Las Vegas

  ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment.’

  Special Agent Hannah Ford sat opposite Ethan Warner in the interview room, smiling as she glanced at the hand cuffs around Warner’s wrists, manacling him to the table.

  ‘So have I,’ Ethan replied. ‘I don’t feel we got off to the best start in Virginia.’

  ‘Running away does that,’ Hannah pointed out.

  ‘It wasn’t like we were on a date.’

  ‘Thankfully.’

  ‘You’d have been disappointed if I’d run away?’ Ethan asked with interest.

  ‘Mister Warner, you’ve been embroiled in an in
ternational conspiracy that has resulted in several deaths.’

  ‘I killed nobody,’ Ethan replied. ‘I did however see Huck Seavers before what happened in the tower. You know … ’

  ‘The incineration,’ Hannah confirmed. ‘We didn’t recover much.’

  ‘And Stanley Meyer was almost certainly murdered by a man named Aaron Mitchell, who escaped the scene at Crescent Dunes. Nicola Lopez, Mary Meyer and I were witnesses alone to everything that happened.’

  Hannah looked down at her notes.

  ‘The District Attorney won’t see it like that. You left Saudi Arabia without a passport or papers, entered the United States illegally and then proceeded to injure several people, acquire a firearm for which you were not licensed and commit a homicide for which the FBI have been hunting you.’ Hannah grinned. ‘And that’s the way I’ll be presenting it.’

  ‘You ever considered the fact that you might be missing the larger picture here? Aaron Mitchell is behind all of this. He’s working for a cabal known as Majestic Twelve. They are dangerous, this isn’t a game.’

  ‘And this supposed fusion cage,’ Hannah replied as she glanced down at her notes. ‘Which cannot be found.’

  ‘The solar array at Crescent Dunes produced energy for a brief few moments before those solar panels lined up on the tower,’ Ethan replied. ‘I take it that Vegas got its power back before the solar plant was producing electricity?’

  ‘I checked that out for you,’ Hannah replied. ‘Turns out the salts atop the tower retain their heat for up to twelve hours after the sun’s gone down, providing power even when they’re not being directly heated. As soon as the engineers corrected what Mary Meyer had done, the plant operated as normal. As for this Majestic Twelve – I think you’ve been watching far too many episodes of The Blacklist, Mister Warner.’

  ‘Check it out on the Internet for yourself,’ Ethan muttered. ‘Documents pertaining to MJ–12 have been available for decades. This isn’t some kind of new conspiracy. Bilderberg is the same, it even has its own website.’

  ‘So does Santa Claus I expect,’ Hannah replied, ‘but I’m not about to go to Lapland to arrest him for illegally crossing borders now, am I?’

  ‘Check the pistol you took from me,’ Ethan insisted. ‘It will have my prints on it, but it will also have those of Aaron Mitchell.’

  ‘The other assassin?’ Hannah asked airily. ‘Lots of assassins in your story, Ethan, and yet you expect me to believe that you have killed nobody. According to your testimony you and your partner, Nicola Lopez, work for the Defense Intelligence Agency and are merely the innocent victims of a multi–national cat and mouse game of corporate espionage.’ She sighed, tilted her head to one side. ‘How adorable. And you’re also James Bond in your spare time?’

  ‘Bilderberg is real, it all stems from there.’

  Hannah’s grin didn’t slip as she stood.

  ‘It appears to be nothing more than one of many international political conventions.’

  ‘Talk to the DIA,’ Ethan said. ‘They’ll confirm who we work for.’

  ‘I already did,’ Hannah replied as she slapped her files down on the table. ‘Nobody at the agency has ever heard of you.’

  Ethan felt his blood run cold.

  ‘Seriously?’

  ‘Seriously,’ Hannah uttered. ‘We have historical documents of your involvement with the DIA but nothing suggesting current support from that agency. I’m not surprised, of course. You’re a fantasist, Warner, living some kind of bizarre dream. I’d have thought it just the act of some loser who couldn’t face real life if it were not for the fact that people have died for being a part of your little charade here.’

  ‘There is no charade,’ Ethan snapped. ‘We’ve been burned. Assim Khan is dead and with Mitchell gone, there’s nobody to corroborate our story if the DIA have decided to drop us.’

  ‘There is no DIA involvement,’ Hannah snapped. ‘You’re going away for a very long time, Mister Warner. I’ve made it my personal mission to see you pay for your crimes, that’s if the Saudis don’t manage to extradite you.’ She leaned on the table, looked into his eyes. ‘What would you prefer? A ten year stretch here on US soil, or the end of your life in some Saudi hell hole instead?’

  ‘I’d prefer to be freed, actually,’ Ethan replied.

  Hannah stood up. ‘Not before hell freezes over.’

  ‘I can wait.’

  The cell door opened and two FBI agents walked in.

  ‘Take him away,’ Hannah ordered.

  ‘You’re not going to believe this,’ Mickey Vaughn said, casting an uncertain glance at Ethan.

  ‘Believe what?!’ Hannah snapped.

  ‘Orders from Langley, we’ve got to cut him loose.’

  ‘He’s our suspect!’ Hannah shouted. ‘We’ve got evidence, witnesses and … ’

  ‘Presidential pardon,’ said Vaughn in reply. ‘For all of them.’

  Hannah’s jaw worked for a few moments but no sound came forth.

  ‘Presidential pardon?’ she finally managed to echo. ‘Who the hell has the authority for this? The president doesn’t even know about what’s … ’

  ‘That’s classified, Defense Intelligence Agency and well above your pay grade,’ Ethan cut in, enjoying himself immensely as relief coursed through his veins. ‘But I’ll happily chat to you about all of this over that drink.’

  Hannah glared at Ethan with such ferocity that he thought for a moment she might burst into flames like Assim Khan had done. Then she whirled and stormed away, leaving the two agents to free Ethan and lead him out of the room.

  Ethan saw two more agents appear ahead, Nicola Lopez wedged between them and looking equally bemused. They said nothing to each other as they were led to a parking lot outside the FBI building. A black SUV was waiting, and as they climbed aboard Doug Jarvis was waiting for them.

  ‘I thought you’d been forcibly retired?’ Ethan asked as he climbed aboard.

  ‘I have,’ Jarvis admitted. ‘But I wanted to come down here and pick you both up. You tell them anything?’ he asked as soon as they were on the move.

  ‘Everything,’ Lopez replied. ‘I figured any chance to get this out in the open was a good one.’

  ‘Did they buy the story?’

  ‘Nope,’ Ethan said. ‘Special Agent Hannah Ford thinks it’s all bunkum and wants our asses in a federal prison as fast as she can manage it.’

  The SUVs drifted down the I95, headed south.

  ‘Good,’ Jarvis said.

  ‘Good that she wants our asses in prison?’ Lopez asked mildly.

  ‘Good that she doesn’t believe it,’ Jarvis corrected. ‘The world’s not ready for this yet.’

  ‘How are the DIA going to cover all of this up?’ Lopez asked in disgust as she rolled her eyes.

  Jarvis glanced out of the windows as he replied.

  ‘Both of you have been pardoned by the president himself, despite FBI Director LeMay’s protests, your saving of Isaiah Black’s life all those years ago finally paying off. Huck Seavers was killed by a Saudi assassin by the name of Assim Khan, who also murdered Stanley Meyer. Huck Seaver’s wife has inherited the family business, which has secured its mining rights in Missouri due to the population of a town named Clearwater voluntarily moving on after a generous re–housing initiative funded by Seavers Incorporated. I’ve heard that the old town has already been levelled by Seavers Incorporated’s explosive tests before the mining begins.’

  ‘Christ,’ Lopez muttered as she shook her head. ‘Your boys sure do move fast.’

  ‘What about the FBI?’ Ethan asked. ‘Hellerman said that they were onto our case, sounded like they wouldn’t let go.’

  ‘Director LeMay backed off as soon as he heard that Mary Meyer was in FBI custody,’ Jarvis replied. ‘With the fusion cage no longer in danger of reaching the public sphere, his work is complete. But he got his message across real well. He’s all in with Majestic Twelve.’

  ‘Amber?’ Ethan asked. ‘Mary?’


  ‘They have been apprised of the situation and now understand that the introduction of a device like the fusion cage cannot be carried out overnight. The socio–economic shockwave would create just as many problems as it would solve. The technology is coming, that is without doubt, and one day the fusion cage will be as ubiquitous as cell phones and fast food – just not today. It’s my hope that with the fusion cage gone and Mary Meyer effectively controlled, Majestic Twelve will pursue her no longer, the risk of exposure now presented by taking her out too great.’

  Ethan rubbed his eyes with his fingers as he spoke.

  ‘Stanley Meyer died to give that thing away. You really believe that the corporations and governments involved in this will let that happen? They’ll annex the technology and make money from it, just like always.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Jarvis replied, ‘but neither you nor I can control that. It would take the population of our entire country to stand up as one and say together that they won’t stand for it. If the people of America were able to do that, to down tools as one and demand action, they could have anything they want, just as could the population of any country on this planet. But none of them ever do and as long as that continues, governments and corporations will continue to hold all of the cards.’

  ‘Business as usual,’ Lopez uttered. ‘Same for you too, I see. I thought you’d been arrested.’

  ‘A temporary set–back due to risking my neck getting you two out of trouble, again. ‘

  ‘My condolences,’ Lopez shot back. ‘How does it feel to be working for governments and corporations that place profits above lives?’

  ‘I don’t choose the way our country works, Nicola, but I do try to do something about improving that country in whatever way I can,’ Jarvis defended himself. ‘However, unless the people themselves choose to act together and do something about it, nothing will change. The United States of America has become a business just like any other, and I can’t change all of that on my own any more than you or Stanley Meyer could.’