Authors: Robert Storey
The commander smiled. ‘That’s pretty much it, although we do have helicopter gunships at this base. We won’t make them airborne to avoid attracting attention, but they can be deployed from their transporters while on the move.’
‘Nice,’ said Goodwin. ‘We obviously want to avoid any kind of battles though; the people we’re going to come up against aren’t our enemy.’
‘Tell that to Malcolm Joiner,’ Hilt said. ‘We’re trying to save lives and anyone in our way will try to prevent us with deadly force; that makes them an enemy in my book. Every soldier knows the risks of their duty. Sometimes they will find themselves on the wrong side, depending on perspective, that’s just part of the job. It’s what we sign up for.’
Goodwin still felt concerned and it must have shown.
‘We will obviously try to avoid engaging anyone, be they American or Mexican,’ Hilt told him, ‘but, as I said before, it will be a miracle if we get to the co-ordinates without any casualties. I think the question you must ask yourself is, do you believe what we are doing is the right option?’
‘The professor does and that’s good enough for me.’
‘Then we must stay the course.’
Goodwin nodded, more confident now. ‘They are wise words, Commander, and I thank you for them. It won’t stop me from praying for that miracle, though.’
‘Amen to that, sir,’ Hilt said. ‘Amen to that.’
♦
Goodwin was resting in his temporary quarters at the compound when a sharp knock came on the door. ‘Come in,’ he said, sitting up on the edge of his bed.
The door opened to reveal a civilian aide. ‘It’s happening, sir.’
‘Right.’ Goodwin got to his feet, donned his coat and followed the man into the corridor, where many others also hurried towards the exit.
Outside, the stars shone brightly in the crisp, cold night air, while a full moon cast subtle shadows on the ground, its silken light gleaming in the dark. Thousands of people gathered en masse, Darklight contractors and civilians alike, all eyes turned upwards to the heavens.
Some people pointed off to the east and a low chatter rippled through the crowd as expectations grew. And then Goodwin saw it, or rather its effects. Stars in the distance disappeared one by one as though snuffed out by a great hand, like a flame on a candle. The sky behind it appeared as black as death’s cold void. The stars directly above them were reached as the dust cloud continued its unstoppable advance, their eternal light extinguished in the blink of an eye. The Moon came next, allowing the cloud to be glimpsed directly as it moved ominously past.
After what seemed like only seconds the night sky had turned pitch-black.
Eternal night was finally upon them.
♦
A few hours later Hilt informed Goodwin that the forces Joiner must have sent to block their escape had been taken care of. According to the commander, they had been overcome with relative ease since they consisted of regulars and were short on numbers. They would be detained and then released at a later date.
Dawn broke with an empty promise when they moved out an hour or so later. No sunrise greeted them, only more of the dense, pervading darkness. The mood of the civilians mirrored that of the sky above and the soldiers were grim-faced and melancholy. To top off the darkness outside all vehicles operated under low interior lighting and zero external lights due to the order to utilise Blackout Systems. To any external witness the convoy, despite its size, would meld into the background of the New Mexico scrubland, the only clue as to its location the roar of the large personnel carriers moving at the core of the procession.
Heading towards Santa Fe, they were quickly on to one of the main trunk roads. The curfew, still in effect, ensured easy passage although they did go by two National Guard units which must have noticed the two hundred plus vehicles as they shot past them at a rate of knots. They were not pursued, however, and why would they be? Such a large armed contingent must be government-run – at least that’s what Goodwin hoped any onlookers would assume.
Goodwin rode in the lead personnel carrier, seated on the edge of an aisle seat next to Kara Vandervoort. Conditions were predictably cramped and the air was thick with warmth, the results of a few hundred people confined in the space meant for nearly half their number. The blacked out windows provided no view of the outside and even if they had, the darkness would have shown them little on the open roads.
The door to the driver’s cab opened in front of Goodwin and a soldier poked his head out. ‘Can you come up front, sir, the commander is on the com.’
Goodwin nodded, gave Kara a comforting smile and followed the man into the vehicle’s cockpit. Three men sat up front with an array of screens, buttons and dials surrounding them, the ice-blue lights of the consoles glowing against the low-lit red illumination the soldiers operated under. A head-up display on the main arching window portrayed a green image of the road ahead. From the personnel carrier’s elevated vantage point they could see nearly to the front of the mechanised caravan, where Goodwin knew Hilt was located in the lead vehicle.
‘Put this on, Director.’ A soldier passed him a small, one-sided headset.
Goodwin held the device up to his ear. ‘Commander?’
‘Sir, we’re coming up to a police checkpoint in the centre of the city,’ Hilt said. ‘We’re going to be stopping while I secure us passage. I’ll keep you apprised.’
‘We’re in Santa Fe, I didn’t realise?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Goodwin looked at the edges of the display, now able to make out the street lighting and buildings around them, each a varying shade of green. ‘Do you need any help?’
‘No, it should be fine. If you stay on the radio I’ll open the mic up so you can hear the exchange.’
‘Very good, Commander.’
‘We’re stopping now,’ Hilt said. ‘Stand by.’
The military trucks ahead slowed, then pulled up, and Goodwin’s personnel carrier lurched as it came to a halt behind them.
‘Sorry, sir,’ the soldier driving said, in apology for the jerky stop. ‘The vehicle’s not designed to carry this kind of load.’
‘No need to apologise,’ Goodwin told him as he listened in on the radio to Hilt ordering two of his men to accompany him.
A muffled rustling sound indicated the Darklight officer had exited from his transport.
‘Safeties off,’ Goodwin heard the commander say as he made his way to the police ahead of him.
‘I’m patching through the feed from the commander’s head camera,’ the driver told Goodwin, tapping away on some keys.
A full colour screen powered up just above the windscreen displaying an image of a large, permanent checkpoint installation around which a few police officers loitered. With the floodlights blazing down, an officer advanced to meet the Darklight commander as he approached. Goodwin heard the footfalls of the men cease as they stopped in front of each other.
‘I don’t recognise your unit, soldier,’ the policeman said in a confrontational tone.
‘We’re covert ops,’ Hilt said with authority. ‘Lower your barriers so we can pass through. We’re on a tight schedule.’
‘We can’t do that, I’m afraid, sir,’ a second police officer told him. ‘We have an itinerary of all military movements in this area and you’re not on the list.’
Goodwin cursed, but Hilt remained as calm as ever.
‘I understand your predicament,’ Hilt said, ‘but in light of recent events the schedule has changed. We’re on DEFCON 1; do you know what that means?’
‘That we’re on high alert?’ the first officer said.
His colleague shook his head. ‘No, five is the highest alert, idiot.’
‘DEFCON 1 is the highest,’ Hilt said, correcting him. ‘And that means I can pretty much do what I want, so if you don’t get that barrier down, I’ll tear it down.’
The police officers looked at Hilt for a moment, then at each other, before moving away a few paces where they entered into a heated discussion. A few seconds later the first man walked off, while the second turned back to Hilt.
‘We’ll just get confirmation from Fort Bliss; it won’t take long.’
The view from Hilt’s camera swung ninety degrees. ‘Jam communications, Lieutenant,’ Hilt said under his breath, apparently to a Darklight officer who was also listening in. ‘Prepare to pacify. Wound only, no kill shots.’
Goodwin suddenly had a thought. ‘Commander, can you hear me?’
‘Go ahead, sir.’
‘There is an emergency command code that gives me the authority in extreme circumstances to override civilian authorities, including the police.’
‘Belay my last,’ Hilt told his men. ‘Do you have the code, sir?’ he asked Goodwin.
‘I have it on my phone, hang on.’ Goodwin took out his computer phone and unfolded its larger display. He navigated to his Steadfast control file and bored into subfolders until he found what he was searching for. ‘I have it, Commander, civilian override GMRC protocol nine five sigma. Code five eight nine seven six dash X-ray X-ray Quebec eight Kilo. They will need to confirm by contacting GMRC dispatch, but it should work.’
‘As long as Joiner hasn’t deactivated your clearance,’ Hilt said.
Goodwin hadn’t thought of that. ‘Let’s hope he hasn’t had time.’
Hilt turned back to the policeman who waited for his superior to return. ‘Officer, I have a GMRC code for you to verify.’
The man took the code and radioed it through to his sergeant, while Hilt told his men to cease jamming and waited for a response. Goodwin held onto the back of a chair, his fingers digging into the cloth as the tension rose.
Finally the first officer reappeared and waved them through as the hydraulic metal barriers slowly lowered.
‘Good job, sir,’ Hilt told him as he made his way back to the convoy.
‘Thanks,’ Goodwin said in relief, his grip relaxing, ‘that was touch and go.’
‘Indeed. Let’s roll out,’ Hilt said, as he swung back into his seat and slammed the door shut.
Goodwin’s video feed was cut and their personnel carrier’s massive engines roared back to life.
It wasn’t long before they had regained speed and ploughed ahead into the darkness once more, heading east along I-25. They weren’t on the interstate for long before they turned right onto a smaller road heading due south. Goodwin put down his headset and moved back to his seat, but before he could get there they slowed again and came to a sharp stop, forcing him to grab onto an armrest in order to maintain his footing.
‘You better put this back on, sir,’ a Darklight operative told him, holding out the communication device Goodwin had just discarded.
‘Commander?’ Goodwin said into the microphone as he returned to the driver’s cab.
‘Yes, sir,’ Hilt replied through the earpiece. ‘We’ve been scanning the area ahead to ensure we don’t run into any more unexpected obstacles. It was just as well we did, as there is sizable force coming up a few junctions away.’
‘Military?’ Goodwin said.
‘U.S. Army, by the looks of it. We could take them out, but I know you want to avoid such a confrontation.’
‘What do you propose we do?’
‘We’re not sure if they’re even trying to intercept us,’ Hilt said. ‘They could just be on their way to any number of locales in the southern states. If we turn around and cut west we can take the I-40 and rejoin the I-25 south for a distance. We can then take a left towards Roswell, hopefully bypassing the Army, and carry on our way towards the national park. The only problem is that this will take us much closer to Fort Bliss than I would like.’
‘I suppose we don’t have much of a choice, do we?
‘Not really, sir.’
‘That would also mean we’d have to pass through another city, wouldn’t it?’
‘Albuquerque, yes, sir.’
Goodwin paused trying to think of alternatives, but he had none. ‘Do it, Commander.’
‘Very good, sir.’
Two hundred plus vehicles carried out a one hundred and eighty degree turn.
As they picked up speed again, the lead vehicles shot past them as Hilt took point once more.
‘Keep me updated, Commander,’ Goodwin told him.
‘Of course, sir.’
Goodwin passed back the headset to the soldier and made his way out of the cabin to rejoin the other civilians. He sat down next to a quizzical Kara.
‘Problems?’ she asked.
‘Nothing major,’ he said. There wasn’t any point in worrying her or the rest of the people onboard any more than they already had been. He settled back into his chair and made a silent prayer for some better fortune as the convoy rattled on into the gloom.
Chapter Eighteen
The generals of U.S.S.B. Steadfast had been called to the Command Centre for an emergency meeting by the Intelligence Director, Malcolm Joiner. Following the infiltration by the Darklight private security firm, the Joint Chiefs had ordered a military intervention. As ever, Malcolm Joiner had stuck his nose into the operation, utilising his own operatives to run parts of the campaign. The generals disliked the power the Intelligence Director had over them, but they were more concerned by the control he apparently exerted over the Joint Chiefs themselves. Virtually anything he wanted was sanctioned, and now that he had Professor Steiner under arrest on spurious grounds, effectively relieving him of his command, and Richard Goodwin had fled the base, the man was in an unassailable position.
They were discussing their options when Joiner came into the room, flanked by one of his agents. The tall, greying Director sat down at one end of the table, away from the military men who had gradually fallen silent at his arrival.
‘What is the meaning of this meeting, Director?’ General Shultz demanded. ‘You’ve had us waiting around for an hour and now you turn up without any hint of an apology or even an excuse.’
Joiner ignored him and held out his hand to the man who now stood to one side and slightly behind his superior. The operative pulled out a folder from a satchel and passed it forwards. Joiner took it and placed it on the table in front of him. Smoothing the front cover down with his palm, he opened the document and put on his spectacles. He appeared to read for a moment and then closed the folder again, removed his glasses and tucked them back into his front pocket.