“I’m here to interview Andy and Sun. I’m the one who flew them to San Diego.”
The free plane tickets.
Andy winced. He’d known it was too good to be true. After Samhain they couldn’t count on anything being a coincidence.
“So you’re not some stoner kid who knocked on our doors accidentally,” Sun said. “You’re a con artist who lied to us.”
Jerry yanked out the taser probes and yelped. “I
did
send you plane fare. That cost me almost all the money I had. Look, all I want is your story. On video, of course, for my ClipShare channel. I’m going to get some sick hits.”
“We would be shot for treason for talking to you, you moron,” Andy said.
“I’ll pixelate your faces. No one will know it’s you.”
Andy rubbed his eyes, feeling a headache coming on. “Except for the Secret Service and the President of the United States.”
Jerry turned sheepish. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that.”
Sun looked at the agents. “What happens to him?”
Agent Williams shrugged. “He’s a foreigner. We could detain him without due process under the Homeland Security Act.”
“Like in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib?” Jerry’s voice went up an octave. “And then what? I’m in jail forever without a trial?”
“That, or you’re executed,” Agent Johnson said.
“Or you accidentally die during enhanced interrogation.” Agent Williams shrugged. “It happens.”
Jerry shook his head and clasped his hands together. “Please let me come with. I’m begging you. Please. I don’t want to be killed or imprisoned or subjected to torture.”
“A
dvanced interrogation
,” Agent Williams corrected.
Andy wanted to be angry this was happening, and angry at Jerry, though the boy wasn’t actually responsible. Instead, all he felt was fear, and pity.
“Can’t you just erase his memory and dump him somewhere?” Andy asked.
Agent Johnson said, “We don’t have that technology perfected.
Yet.
”
“So our choice is to bring him, or he disappears?” Andy said.
“Your choice,” Agent Williams said. “The President is allowing you to bring whomever you’d like.”
“How generous of him,” Andy said, his frown deepening.
Sun squatted down next to Jerry. “If you come with us, Jerry, you can’t put this on your website. No videos. No blogging. No telling anyone, ever. Do you understand that?”
The kid just nodded.
“And you’re not really stoned right now?”
“I was acting. I poked myself in the eyes so they were bloodshot. I just want to know the truth, Mrs. Dennison-Jones. Finding it is all I have.”
Sun gave her husband a look. Andy frowned.
“Bring him along,” he said.
A few minutes later they were hauling their bags and being corralled into the obligatory black helicopter idling on the hotel’s lawn. Several spectators, both hotel staff and guests, stood around gawping at the spectacle.
The Government obviously doesn’t do
clandestine
anymore.
Andy, Sun, and Jerry strapped themselves into their seats. Sun looked determined. Jerry looked excited. Andy felt like throwing up.
The rotor blades started spinning. A feeling of weightlessness heralded the beginning of the flight and before long the chopper was a hundred feet above the ground, zipping away at eighty miles an hour. Andy watched the ground whiz by beneath them, and his gut told him this was a really, really bad idea.
“Don’t worry,” Sun said over the roar of the chopper’s twin engines. “We never really were the relaxing type anyway. This is far more
us
.”
“You think?”
Sun leaned up against him and rubbed his thigh. “I’m still going to find some time to get you alone, my sexy man.”
Andy felt himself brighten at the suggestion, but not enough to chase away all the worry. “Sun, I love you more than anything, but we know what happened last time.”
“Nuclear explosion,” Jerry said, grinning.
“This is a private conversation. But, yes, it ended in a nuclear explosion.” Andy looked into his wife’s deep brown eyes. “Do you really see this ending well?”
“Maybe things will be different this time. Safer. More secure. There’s always the chance the government learned from their mistakes.”
Jerry laughed. “Yeah. Right. They do that all the time.”
Sun reached for Andy’s hand, held it tight. “Well, whatever happens, we’re married, we’re together. How bad can it be?”
Andy stared out of the window as the city of San Diego gave way to lonely countryside. Sagebrush and tumbleweeds dotted the landscape and the Laguna Mountains loomed in the distance.
“It could be as bad as last time,” Andy said. “That’s how bad it could be.”
“Nothing can be as bad as last time.”
Andy pressed his forehead against the window and closed his eyes. “We’ll see.”
The chopper followed along the coastline but headed inland after about two hours. Andy didn’t know this part of the country too well, but he considered that they might be heading over palm valley towards Constitution 1857 National Park in Baja, Mexico.
Last time it was the desert, this time it’s the wilderness.
The chopper began its descent and Agent Williams, sitting up front with the pilot, muttered something into the mic attached to his headset. Obviously somebody down below was expecting them.
Sun’s hand tightened around Andy’s. He squeezed back.
Andy stared out the window at the approaching treetops and thought about the events of the last few years. It was likely that they would soon be adding more unwanted experiences to their mental résumés. Andy had known this time would eventually come. He and Sun being summoned like this had been inevitable from the moment they’d walked away from Samhain. They were involved in something that was not yet over.
Perhaps it never would be.
The helicopter touched down in a clearing between a circle of Jeffrey pines. The steel skids struck rocky ground and the cockpit bounced briefly before settling down and coming to rest.
Agent Williams twisted in his chair and nodded at Sun and Andy. “Get out and somebody will meet you.”
“This is
so
cool,” Jerry said.
Andy glanced at him. “Trust us, it’s not cool. It’s probably going to end with all of us running for our lives.”
“That is
so
cool,” Jerry said.
Andy shoved Jerry out of the door and then turned around to help his wife make the three foot drop to the rocky landing pad.
The clearing was baked, the ground hard and parched. Shadows covered one side of the area while the sun beat down ferociously on the other. There was no wildlife nearby; no birds, no squirrels. Andy craned his neck and looked around. Three hundred and sixty degrees of woodland, not a building nor soul in sight.
One of the agents dropped their bags, then the chopper quickly jumped back up into the air. It tilted left and then headed right, clearing the treetops by mere inches. Within seconds it was out of sight, the distant humming of its propellers the only evidence that it had ever been there.
“Whoa!” said Jerry, looking up at the sky. “Did they just leave us here?”
“Just wait,” said Andy. “We’re not alone. Someone is going to pop out of somewhere.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Dennison-Jones, I presume?”
Andy spun around. Behind them stood an older gentleman in military uniform. From the amount of ribbons on the man’s chest, both his rank and experience were distinguished.
Andy walked to meet the figure, aware of the drill after having been through a similar situation before. He held out a hand to shake the man’s hand. “It’s Dennison-Jones.”
“Isn’t that what I said?”
Andy realized it was. He’d been so used to correcting people that he hadn’t caught it.
“I suppose you did. I take it you’re the head honcho?”
“I’m General Austin Kane. Welcome to Project Monstrum, facility 26. Or, as we here call it, the Spiral.”
Monstrum. Great.
Kane offered a bony hand, which Andy shook firmly. It felt like clutching a wispy tree branch.
“And this must be Mrs. Dennison-Jones.”
“Ms.” Sun said, taking his hand.
Andy explained, “We’re married, so we combined our last names, but we don’t feel the English honorific should change just because of how many X chromosomes you have.”
“Whipped!” Jerry said. “If I ever get married—”
“Don’t bet on it,” Sun said, staring him down.
Jerry shut up.
“And this must be the extra baggage I was informed about. Jerry Preston. Tell me, son, what compelled you to steal from—”
“Nice to meet you, General,” Jerry offered his hand. “I’m happy to help out in any way I can.”
“Yes, well, if you don’t, you’ll be sent to a black site, and then we’ll go after everyone you care about.”
“Wha?”
“Kidding, of course.” The General raised his eyebrows. “Or am I? Now let’s get everyone inside for a quick briefing. I’ll send someone up for your bags.”
Sun and Andy looked at one another. Then Andy nodded to the General. “Lead the way.”
Andy, Sun, and Jerry followed Kane over to a large pile of logs between two leaning pine trees. Close inspection revealed that they were fake, made of thick, painted plastic and secured to a large metal plate. The plate slid aside automatically as they approached, revealing a murky stairwell leading into the earth. It was Samhain all over again.
“The Spiral has recently been upgraded,” Kane told them. “But I’m afraid the entrance has seen better days. Mind your step on the way down as some of the steps have decayed after so long underground.”
Everybody headed down the staircase. The large metal plate slid closed above them and a line of naked bulbs on the ceiling switched on. Many of the bulbs had blown-out or were flickering.
After a few hundred harsh, concrete steps, the staircase ended at a set of modern aluminium doors. The doors slid apart as the group got closer, revealing the shiny interior of a burnished steel elevator vestibule big enough to hold an SUV.
“The refurbishments start here,” said Kane. “After the Samhain incident, a majority of our facilities were revamped and retrofitted with new security protocols. Each room and hallway has an alarm.” He pointed to the wall, at a red square with a lever on it. “Pull it, and the entire complex goes on lockdown. We also have a small contingent of armed security staff, so please don’t be alarmed by the sight of weaponry.”
Andy felt simultaneously better and worse. It was good that the facility was more protected than Samhain had been, but bad that it was yet another facility that needed to be guarded in the first place.
“Needless to say,” Kane said, “but everything you are about to see must be kept in absolute secrecy. You all know what will happen if you don’t. Now, please, step into the elevator.”
The group stepped inside the vaulted cabin. There were no controls on the wall. Kane simply said, ‘Spiral, Level 2’.
The elevator began to descend.
“It automatically detects my security card.” Kane produced a credit card sized piece of plastic from his pocket and showed it to them. “Without one of these cards or a visitor’s access fob the elevators will not work. Only a few key people have full access, and even if they have the card they also need specific codes to do certain things, like open cell doors. Just one of our many security features.”
“I feel like I’m on an episode of
Fringe
,” said Jerry.
“Believe me,” Andy said. “The awe wears off quickly.”
“Let’s try to stay positive, honey.” Sun took his hand. “We don’t know anything yet.”
“I
am
positive,” Andy said. “I’m positive it’s going to be awful.”
“Don’t be overly concerned, Mr. Dennison-Jones,” Kane said. “We’ve got a good team here, and a good facility. There hasn’t been an accident at the Spiral for eight years.”
“Let me guess why I’m here. Did you get some new addition? Something that looks like a demon from hell?” Andy folded his arms. “If so, your eight year safety streak is about to end.”
“We have a lot more here than demons, Mr. Dennison-Jones. You’ll find it is nothing like Samhain.”
The elevator shuddered to a stop and the doors immediately opened. What greeted them was like nothing they had ever seen before.
It was not at all like what Andy had been expecting. General Kane had been right.
It was nothing like Samhain.
Sun was concerned about her husband. She knew that beneath his veneer of calm, Andy was terrified. How could he not be? After what had happened the last time they’d been underground courtesy of the US government, it was a wonder he’d managed to remain sane. The same was true of her, of course. Despite the contentment she had found in Andy’s arms, and the outright joy that her engagement and recent marriage had brought, she was still deeply damaged. She often lay awake in bed, knowing that Andy, too, was probably feigning sleep beside her. She would think about the terrors they had seen together and knew that if sleep eventually did find her it would be draped in a shroud of nightmares.
And now it seemed as though her nightmares were about to receive a follow-up booster shot.
When the elevator doors opened, Sun’s apprehension was alleviated somewhat. Samhain had been a technological kluge beneath the desert, much of it older than anyone working there. But what she was looking at now was an entirely different ball game.
“Welcome to Spiral level 2,” said General Kane. He stepped out in front of them and gestured like a magician revealing some great illusion. “Or as we like to call this area, the Nucleus. We’re fifty meters down. But there’s far more than just this.”
Sun stepped out of the elevator and glanced around, tilting her head in all directions. The vaulted ceilings were a hundred-feet high above an area the size of a football field. Glass partitions separated numerous banks of blinking computers and expensive modern desks. There were so many people milling about the area that it could have passed for the call center of some mundane corporation.
“This is where 80% of the facility’s staff operates,” said Kane. “From here we can control security, communication, and all other aspects of the day-to-day running of the site. Our entire network is powered by one of the world’s most powerful super computers and protected by the most sophisticated firewalls in existence.”