Red Peaks

by Eton Corrasable

  Chapter 3: Deus Ex Machina

  22.41

  Gilt’s eyes are shocked open by a blinding light as water is rapidly empties from a translucent container that they are both suspended in the centre of. Eventually they are both lying face-down, arms wrapped around each other, soaked, at the bottom of a now-empty empty cube, limbs twitching, like fish caught from the sea. He eyes shut again in exhaustion.

  A vague pulsing sound wakens him. As they flicker open, he looks in wonder at the sight of a large creature swimming below. He lifts both arms in sudden fear of being in mid-flight, as if in a dream, before relaxing again. A circular disc of light glints into the periphery of his sight. He blinks and turns his head a little, to see the source of its emission: his gun, just a few feet away. Defying gravity, it stands on its muzzle, letting out a ripple of light that echoes back and forth through the confines of the large transparent container. Gilt turns to S_____ and shakes her awake. They both slowly help each other to their. They breathe quickly. The air is thin. Gilt reaches out an arm to stop her stumbling, or fainting. Together they shuffle over towards the gun. Gilt crouches to the ground, clasping an arm around S_____’s legs for support, while reaching out and carefully clasping his hand around his downward-facing gun, which levitates slightly from the ground. Clutching it, he strains himself attempting to squeeze the trigger, but meets resistance. S_____ crouches by him and places her hand around his. They try together and circular outlines appear around them, revealing a circular tunnel directly beneath them. Together they maniacally clutch the handle, squeezing the trigger as hard as possible. There is a gentle cracking sound. The circle around them shatters and they fall spiralling down.

  22.47

  They fade into existence together within a vast interior with audibly flickering lighting that, together with the sounds of innumerable steadily leaking droplets of water, creates the sensation of being immersed in an intense sound art installation. Gilt notices something at the far end of the space. A white sheet covering a large oblong object. He begins to enthusiastically scuttle over toward it. Pulling off the sheet reveals a strange, pristine, animal-like skeleton of a vehicle. Disappointed, he turns to look around the space, as if there might be anything of use. Approaching a small table and chair in the centre, he picks up a small black object resting on it. His fingers sense a small round indentation on its side. Studying it more closely, he notices wisps of smoke momentarily form the word ‘Neutraliser’ on its surface. Turning it over, he tries to read some small glowing red text.

  ‘Come on, this way.’

  Gilt looks up to see S_____ operating a control panel of a circular door on the far wall, which begins to open. Quickly pocketing the object, he follows her through.

  22.49

  A swirling turmoil of orange and white light showers their faces as they calmly walk down a long gleaming circular corridor that dwarfs them in size. S_____ begins to feel an area of her neck. As she probes a specific spot, her head dips forward and her body begins to crumple. Gilt rushes forward to hold and steady her. He checks his watch.

  ‘Wouldn’t want to be late now would we?’

  He strains to hold her up so that they can continue. The pristine light flickers intensely, shuts off, momentarily leaving them in pitch darkness, before coming back on again. Gilt stops, attempting to shield his eyes from the effects of this unexpected interplay of sense stimuli. Finally everything becomes a still, pristine white. The corridor loses its dimensions. They appear to be walking into whiteness. Gilt involuntarily holds an arm in front of him. A deep weariness catches up with his body, dragging him down. His head splinters inside with pain inspired from the brightness. The unreality of the whiteness allows daydreaming to intrude into his vision, as if projected from his subconscious directly onto his surroundings reality.

  Aiguilles Rouge

  (19__?)

  11.29

  Gilt stops F____ as he hammers a peg into the rock face. They are a quarter of the way up. Stopping, they listen together carefully to some faint rumbling, and then look up to a ledge immediately above. H_____ is trailing beneath them. The rumbling stops. F____ continues hammering. Flakes of rock fall away. He inspects the rock, then hammers the peg in deeper. Checking it is secure, F____ attaches a carabiner, followed by rope, which dangles down to H_____ below. Gilt continues climbing, followed by F____. After a little while, Gilt reaches the ledge. F____ begins to follow. But as he approaches the ledge, his trouser leg snags on a peculiarly shaped rock. Retrieving his Swiss Army Knife, and, reaching down, he swipes and cuts the clothing free. Pocketing the knife again, he clambers up. H_____ continues climbing from below. There is more rumbling. H_____ stops and looks up. Small rocks and snow fall over his face. He carries on climbing. As he approaches the ledge, his trouser leg snags on the same rock. As he retrieves his knife, the rumbling grows louder. The knife accidentally drops from his hand. He curses, trying to reach with his hand, which only unbalances him. He looks up.

  ‘F____!’

  Gilt and F____ don’t hear at first. They are busy securing their ropes at the ledge. Then F____ stops and turns back to kneel down by the edge. He peers down. He sees H_____ holding out his hand.

  ‘Lend me your knife will you?’

  There is more rumbling. Gilt looks up, and then over to F____, who looks over to him, then back down to H_____. He takes out his knife.

  Underground

  22.51

  They reach an impenetrable white wall.

  ‘Here..’

  Now somewhat awake again, S_____ reaches an arm languidly out toward the impenetrable whiteness, tapping something with a forefinger. Holographic lines form around her fingerprint. They stand and wait as an oval outline gently appears before them. The oval shape becomes mist. A guard appears beyond it, gently welcoming them in.

  ‘Ah..’

  Gilt smiles, as if recognising him.

  ‘Evening. You couldn’t get us some new clothes by any chance? We are somewhat overdue for an appointment.’

  23.00

  Both immaculate in black, Gilt and S_____ stand inside a tight, pristine white curved interior as a thin outline of mist reveals a hatch door that proceeds to silently open, as if revealing the depths of outer space. They step in. S_____ holds his hand and they continue blindly into the absolute darkness. Eventually, a small vertical hue of green appears ahead, to the right.

  As the blurred strip of colour eventually drifts into focus, faint scribbling sounds become discernible. A seated woman is visible through a high square wall of semi-translucent stacks of files and papers. She has an arm out-stretched, as if writing at great speed upon an invisible desk. Walking around the wall, they arrive at an opening, which is only just wide enough to slip through. The woman’s body pauses in motion as her head turns to notice their existence. Her eyes widen as they approach, and with a slight facial gesture, she signals for them to enter. The loose corners of the quasi-physical stacks of documentation bristle and glow at the edges as their shoulders brush them. S_____ runs a hand along one side, noticing the bright yellow luminous digital chains of her fingerprints that remain in their wake, which proceed to turn red as they are scanned, before flashing green and fading away. The woman inside crosses her arms and looks up at Gilt, smiling warmly up at him. As she does so, the outlines of a coat stand appear in the corner behind, like an elaborate illustration magically sketched upon a blackboard. Gilt looks down to a bowler hat held between his hands. As if involuntarily, he holds it up to aim. It misses, and falls down, disappearing into the floor. The woman rolls her eyes, then looks at him somewhat wistfully.

  ‘It’s been too long, Gilt..’

  ‘Well. I’m here now.’

  Gilt straightens his shoulders.

  ‘Reporting for duty.’

  The woman half-smiles. Then sighs a little. She is about to say something, when she notices the time on her watch.

  ‘He’ll see you now.’

  She makes a gesture with he hand and a f
lickering element of reality automatically clicks into place. Next to the coat stand there is now a luxuriously padded royal blue door.

  ‘He’s been waiting.’

  S_____ remains silent while looking around the remaining pieces of reality of the room as they flicker in and out of existence. She looks at Gilt, who stares straight ahead at the door.

  ‘Gilt?’

  As if snapping out of a trance, Gilt turns and smiles and nods and, walking forward, reaches out his hand to turn the gleaming prismatic crystal door handle.

  L’s Office

  23.04

  L sits behind an ornate wooden desk in an otherwise purely royal blue room. He listens intently to a small trumpet shape that is placed against his ear, before proceeding to speak into a circular shape at the top of a dark stem that he is clutching in his other hand. When he speaks no sound is heard, as if miming. Whilst continuing to silently speak, a red square flashes in the air. He begins to finish the call as an eye catches sight of Gilt and S_____, who patiently watch as L carefully connects the small trumpet onto the side of the stem before placing the device down firmly on the desk.

  ‘Where the hell have you been?’

  Gilt and S_____ meet eyes, then turn to look back toward L. L leans forward in his chair. He begins to frown.

  ‘You look like... Have you both been... Soaked?’

  ‘Just a quick splash, you know. R and R.’

  ‘Give you an hour or two and you both take the night off for a swim..?’

  The device on L's desk comes alive. It has been brought to life by a ringing that makes the stem appear to gently dance. Scowling at them both, L retrieves it again and lifts the receiver to his ear. He sits there, listening carefully and slowly nodding, his eyes moving from side to side. The red square flashes in the air. As L continues listening, he looks back at Gilt and S_____, then winces slightly. Gilt retrieves a dart and places it down on the desk. Whilst silently speaking again, L picks the dart up to inspect it. Placing it back down, L points to a small object on the desk. Gilt picks the object up and notices a symbol on it. Replacing the receiver again, L opens a draw and retrieves a file, from which he removes a grainy photo. It depicts a man from behind, his head turning round just a little, almost providing a slender profile. Gilt takes the image from him and scrutinizes it. The man’s face strongly resembles H____ O_________.

  ‘That was taken by an undercover operative near Lake Geneva in Switzerland last week.’

  ‘But that can’t be..’

  L makes a hand gesture.

  ‘I know. But don’t worry. Of this you can be sure. He is under lock and key.’

  S_____ nods in agreement.

  ‘Literally.’

  Gilt turns to both of them in turn. He raises an eyebrow.

  ‘Yes. He currently resides three floors below the one you just entered.’

  L points at the photograph.

  ‘There’s something else. Can you see?’

  Gilt looks up at L for a moment, then returns attention to the photo. S_____ leans over his shoulder.

  ‘It’s the same...’

  ‘Same what?’

  ‘Symbol. Yes. So, what does it signify?’

  L’s mouth twitches a little as he casually shakes his head.

  ‘What do you know about Geophysical Measurement and Signature Intelligence?’

  Gilt looks up for a moment.

  ‘Recognised as a formal intelligence discipline in the late 80s. It involves the analysis of phenomena transmitted through the earth - ground, water, atmosphere - as well as man-made structures, including emitted or reflected sounds, pressure waves, vibrations, and magnetic field or ionosphere disturbances.’

  ‘Yes..’

  ‘Technically derived intelligence that detects, tracks, identifies, or describes the signatures of fixed or dynamic target sources. It.. feeds on a target’s unintended emissive by-products, the trails - be they spectral, chemical, or otherwise - that an object leaves behind. These trails form distinct signatures, which ... can be exploited as reliable discriminators to characterise specific events or disclose hidden targets.’

  ‘Very good. The CIA have been in contact with us regarding some potentially important intelligence. They were apprised of it via a contact at a research facility near the edge of Lake Geneva, near the Franco-Swiss border.’

  L leans back in his chair and opens a desk draw. He takes out a rectangular device and starts waving his fingers over it.

  ‘Do you still have the weapon S_____ issued you?’

  Gilt feels inside his jacket, retrieves the gun, and holds it out in the palm of his hand. L pauses for a moment. He runs a hand through his hair, before continuing to move his fingers expressively toward the device in his hand, as if conjuring its essence.

  ‘So my license to kill is now officially...’

  Three red lights on the side of the gun slowly flash green, one at a time, accompanied by three ascending sounds.

  ‘As of this moment.’

  Gilt places it back inside his jacket. L places the device back inside the draw and leans forward in his chair.

  ‘I want you both to go and meet with the director of operations at the facility. They are currently organising a reconnaissance operation. ____x will be your point of contact on arrival. He’ll be able to direct you to the location of the facility.’

  L takes out a slim silver case from his jacket pocket and waves his hand over it. The case opens flat in his hand of its own accord, and what looks like a miniature constellation of stars arises from it. L reconfigures their arrangement, pauses, then snaps the case shut and hands it to Gilt.

  ‘Ah, this also.’

  L forages back into his jacket to retrieve a small silver cube that he tosses to Gilt.

  ‘A vehicle has been sent ahead for you. With necessary modifications.’

  L nods to the cube in Gilt’s hands.

  ‘So you can review them on your flight.’

  Gilt attaches the cube to the case like a magnet. L makes a gesture with his hand and reaches for the stem on the desk. Gilt stops at the door before following S_____ out, and turns back to L.

  ‘I - I saw _.’

  L’s hand drops the stem. He down, then lifts his eyes to meet Gilt. He opens his mouth to begin to speak, but decides against it, hesitating.

  ‘How did it happen?’

  L opens his mouth. He pauses.

  ‘Well, we still don’t quite know for sure but...’

  From outside the still-open door Sy____ speaks a name. The sound of the word drifts into the room in an almost uncanny manner. L unconsciously catches the sound of it. He nods somewhat solemnly.

  ‘Yes, in all likelihood. He was investigating the complex algorithm that your old friend previously used to hack our system and thereby escape confinement. _ managed to isolate. Spent weeks examining the thing. He thought it contained important information.’

  ‘And his condition?’

  ‘We hope to.. come up with something. Before…’

  ‘Before what?’

  L remains silent. He runs a hand through his hair, staring down at his desk, before meeting Gilt’s eyes again. His mouth twitches.

  ‘When I saw him. He said something. Kept repeating it.’

  Gilt puts a hand on the desk and leans forward, whispering. Sy____ reappears through doorway like a silhouette. L listens, then pulls back, and frowns. Looking up, he pauses, then looks behind Gilt to Sy____, and motions at her.

  ‘Go and show him.’

  23.15

  Exiting a lift, Sy____ and Gilt walk directly into a wide room with large glass panels on its opposing side. The windows overlook a computer laboratory below. Gilt walks up to the glass and looks through it to the space below. A series of humming grey computer terminals are connected to each-other on long shiny black tables. Sy____ stands beside him.