Sons of Abraham: Pawns of Terror (9 page)

“Do you have something in mind?”

“I do, but I’ll tell you later. Let’s get on with the other issues, shall we?”

Hannah took a seat next to Lache, pulling a datapad from the white bag she was carrying on her shoulder. Her slender fingers worked across the screen, making the windows to the room darken. A moment later, the windows lit up with what was on the screen of Hannah’s pad, offering Jones a view of the new Divinity Corporation facility. On the surface, it looked the same as any other, except that the shape was far more complex. Where most buildings were simple rectangles, the one on the screen was flat on one side, arched on the other. Four more buildings rested against it, each similar in shape but reaching varying heights. One square building sat away from the rest with a bridge reaching out to the highest tower, three-quarters the way up the side. Hannah’s fingers slid across the smooth surface, causing the view to shift on the window screen. The entire city was laid out, offering buildings of various sizes and shapes across the landscape. A tall mountain could be seen in the background with a stream running through the middle of the city. The stream was channeled underneath the bridge that connected the two towers before it disappeared into the lower edge of the screen. At first glance, Jones thought a series of walls surrounded the city. As Hannah zoomed in, he could see windows in the walls, meaning that they were actually buildings. It was a magnificent city, the life’s work of the elderly man before him.

“Construction is nearly complete,” she said in a soothing voice. “The towers have been completed as well as the utilities throughout the city. We hope to have the exterior buildings up within the next three months with the other buildings within the walls completed by the end of the year.”

Jones watched as she zoomed out, showing the landscape that surrounded the new city. A series of roads came out from the walls with crossroads connecting them. Rows of houses and other facilities lined those streets. She continued to zoom out until the city could no longer be seen, just before the screen went dark.

“That’s fairly impressive,” Jones muttered, turning to face the group. “How many people can it hold?”

“Around two million, comfortably,” Lache replied, turning to face Jones. “Those outer walls are actually housing units, which will hold the majority of the population.”

Jones looked to the blank screen, a series of questions forming in his mind. The list was long, but only one needed an answer at the moment. The same question he’d avoided asking since this project began.

“So why do you need the Cybers?” he asked, catching the cold stare of Hannah. “This new city and planet would sell itself without the deception.”

Lache leaned forward, his bony elbows smacking the clear plastic table. Jaeger stopped scanning for a moment, realizing that his services may be necessary. Jones wasn’t in a position to ask such a question.

“Why do I need the Cybers?” Lache repeated. “Have you ever thought about how tightly the people cling to the Earth? Billions have evacuated the planet, yet a billion still choose to live there. Why? Why would so many cling onto a planet that has little, if nothing, left to offer them?”

Jones didn’t bite the bait, choosing to wait for the rhetorical question to be answered by Lache. Hannah sat back in her seat, looking confident as ever.

“They do so because they were raised to live on the Earth,” he continued. “Those people are so stubborn that they will hold to their traditions and ride that round rock until their dying breath. They have to be told to leave. They must be FORCED to leave. When that time comes, a new home will welcome them with open arms. The days of the Earth being the crutch of the galaxy will be over, and mankind can finally begin to prosper once more.”

“But people ARE prospering on other planets,” Jones replied. “Eden would be the perfect example. They live rich, meaningful lives on a flourishing planet. Their people have little to want and their Monarchy seems to have the longevity of the planet in mind with every decision they make.”

“Yes, Eden has prospered,” Lache answered. “But at what cost? They don’t allow for an outsider to live on their planet. They take strict control over the size of their population. It’s a model home, but the owner doesn’t allow for expansion. Where else will the people of Earth go? Parasus is more ocean that land. Taryon and Mesa are havens for black markets and crumbling societies. The people will have nowhere left to turn when the time comes to leave. They will be forced to other planets and crash the weak economy and ecosystems as they do. As we speak, the last terraship is grinding to a halt, with ninety percent of the planet still left to form. It has a year, at best, before it crashes to the surface. We MUST have that technology if we are to finish what we have started. Besides, the terraformed planets already have existing governments, monarchies, and even a hierarchy. Divinity has no interest in basing themselves within any of those existing structures.”

“Still,” Jones replied. “Using the Cybers to inflict terror on Earth is a little extreme, is it not? Isn’t there another way to gain access to the technology?”

Lache let out a hoarse laugh before ending in a coughing fit. Hannah stood from her chair, her hand resting gently upon the man’s shoulder. He raised a hand to motion her away but continued to cough as she sat back down.

“Look at Eden for your answer,” Lache started after he regained his voice. “The Cyber who invented the artificial gravity took that knowledge with him when Eden was being populated and the planet has flourished because of it. Four hundred years later and they still manage to maintain their hold on the galaxy. The greatest scientific minds have yet to reverse engineer the method, leaving the galaxy at the mercy of their Queen. The ground broken by Gabriel is no different with the exception that no one knows what happened to him. The machines that made the rings simply shut down, their programming wiped. Engineers tried for a hundred years to break through the security in the programming but weren’t able to access what makes the rings work. Every attempt has resulted in cover ships that turn to pure energy upon breaking light speed, dissipating into nothing. They’ve tried to crack the code for the terraships, creating vessels that destroy the planets, rather than reform them. Now, the last ship has been used, and we are no closer to discovering our own solutions. Hell, we can’t even figure out how to make a second generation Cyber. The third gens have their use, but their minds are restricted, preventing their creativity from melding with the technology. We are in no better shape than we were five hundred years ago, save the fact that mankind is spread out over the galaxy.”

Jones leaned back in his seat and clapped his hands. Hannah’s plump lips fell open in dismay toward the gesture. Jaeger slid a hand to the holster of his gun, anticipating the order to kill the man sitting alone at the far end of the table.

“Very nice,” Jones laughed. “You almost convinced me.”

The expression on Lache’s face grew stern, his feeble body beginning to tremble at the disrespectful display before him.

“You dare,” Lache muttered. “After all, I’ve done for you, yet still you mock me. I should have Jaeger put you out of my misery.”

“Oh, you probably should,” Jones replied. “However, the fact remains that you need me much more than I need you. If you kill me, the connection to the Cybers dies with me. They’ll regain their independence and you’ll have no one to rain terror upon the poor people on Earth. You’d be lucky if they didn’t form a platoon and waste your entire company.”

Jones looked to Jaeger, offering the man a wide smile.

“And don’t think your dog intimidates me,” he continued. “He’s been in my control for two months now.”

Jaeger looked to Lache, anger forming upon his face. The elder man continued to fix upon Jones, weighing the bluff versus the reality. Jaeger waited patiently for his command, yearning to put a hole into the taller man’s skull.

“On to other business, perhaps?” Hannah interrupted. “What do you have on the intruder?”

Jones looked to the question, laying his options out before him. He could tell them the truth, that Thomas Abrams had allowed himself into the very same abandoned facility in which they sat, but that would prove useless. They wouldn’t believe that he was alive, nor should they. Abrams disappeared almost five hundred years ago. There was a higher probability that someone had found his remains and used the chip in his hand to access the doors. This was the working theory that Jones was dealing with though he was still trying to determine how the thieves knew to come here. Perhaps they’d gained access to the memory core of the first Cyber. The possibility was slim, but Jones could think of little other ways in which someone could have accessed the security of the building. Still, the information had more value to himself than the people opposite of him.

“Someone hacked into the system,” he replied, mulling over his fabricated story. “Perhaps one of the guards still had their security chip. It’s impossible to say as they wiped the video footage and log of entry. The inventory still remains intact, so I’m guessing they were unable to access the elevators.”

“We came all this way for nothing?” Hannah snapped. “We should have Jaeger kill you now for wasting our time.”

Jaeger tried to unholster his pistol, simply to prove a point. His hands, however, quickly found that they could not pull the strap that held the gun in place. It seemed that Jones wasn’t bluffing when he claimed to have control over the Cyber. The smile on Jones’ face only furthered his annoyance.

“I can assure you that your time wasn’t wasted,” Jones started. “You needed my report on Dr. Green and I need to receive my new orders. We couldn’t chance sending a message across the stream. So, here we are, having this necessary, albeit unpleasant, conversation.”

Lache motioned to Hannah with a wrinkled hand. She hesitated for a moment, then flicked her finger across the screen. The device in Jones’ pocket vibrating, informing him that a document had been received. He looked down to the table as the other three exited the room without another word being said. When he was alone, he pulled the device from his pocket and gazed upon his new orders. The smile faded as he scrolled down the list.

The end of the list blinked at him before he turned the device off and shoved it back into his pocket. He knew this wasn’t the job that he’d signed up for, but he needed to play along until all of his options were exposed to him. He heard Lache’s ship lift off the ground, rattling the overgrown trees that brushed against the building.

Knowing that he was clear, Jones left the meeting room, choosing to head towards the elevator. He scanned his wrist, bringing the lift to life. Several minutes passed before the doors opened. As he descended to the lower levels, he pondered the impact of Lache’s plan. He wasn’t gullible enough to believe that Lache wanted to save the people of the Earth. Only a child would buy into the diluted lie. He developed his own reasons for Lache’s actions, weighing the consequences of the orders resting in his pocket.

The doors opened, revealing the vast chamber, hundreds of feet below the surface of the planet above. The tall man made straight for the control panel, using his security chip to bring the computer to life. He activated all of the wall panels, instructing the computer to open every one of them. With the command entered, he turned and went to each panel, making a mental inventory as he went.

There was no surprise that the medicine and weapons inventory had been vanquished. The medical equipment and tooling shelves had several empty spots as well. The missing hover boards made him ponder the value of atronium on the market, realizing that there were other facilities that shared the same wealth of the rare metal. All of the exposed panels were pointless as the final panel was the only one that concerned him. There was no entry on the computer for what lie behind the last panel, meaning that either no entry had been made or that the entry had been deleted from the file. The trace evidence in the empty shelve offered him little possibility other than a cryo chamber. The empty hydraulic lift sat ready to use though the paint had been scraped off on several of the bars. There was a plug-in for a monitoring device as well as a filtration system built into the back wall.

Jones thought the steps through his head. He hadn’t lied when he said that the video footage had been deleted. Luckily, he had just the device to aid him in determining whom the thieves were. He would scan the panels for prints and end the mystery once and for all. It would be difficult to complete the tasks laid out by Lache, as well as follow up on whatever evidence he could find in the abandoned facility, but many hands make for a light load.

4 CHAPTER four

Janys saw the wide, terrified eyes looking back at her as she squeezed the trigger on Bearden’s assault rifle. The stock of the rifle kicked hard against her narrow shoulder, sending a stabbing pain through her collarbone. Despite the muzzle rising higher than she’d wanted, the first shot of the three-fire burst managed to hit the target, spraying the white wall with crimson. The man fell just before the butt of a rifle edged around the corner.

Janys had already dropped to one knee, realigning her next shot. The shots from the corner sailed over her head, ricocheted off the walls behind her. Her mind calculated the shot based upon the where the rifle was peeking out from the corner. She aimed at the wall and gently squeezed the trigger. The heavy assault rifle responded, drowning out the shouts from down the hallway as the burst crashed through five inches of the plastic wall. Once more, the shot found its mark as the rifle dropped to the floor.

She slung the heavy rifle over her shoulder and grabbed the dazed Sargent by the boots. Her first attempt yielded no result other than to turn the man perpendicular with the wall. She would have grabbed him by the shoulders, but she knew she would have to drop him in a hurry if anyone else came around the corner. She wasn’t a medic, but she figured dropping his feet would cause much less damage than dropping him on his already concussed head. The large man groaned as the back of his head bounced over debris as the thin Corporal continued in her efforts to drag him out of harm’s way.

The boots were dropped heavily upon the floor. Janys James turned and estimated how far she needed to drag the man before she could reach the next security door. Her best judgment told her that she would not be able to move the man the needed length, leaving her little options other than pulling him into one of the labs.

She came to the first lab but opted to continue pulling the man down the slick floor. The lab was too close to the action for her liking. The thumping of boots on floor sent her heart racing as she summoned all of her strength and slid Bearden into the second lab. His shoulder caught on the doorway, filling her chest with panic as the oncoming boots were now crunching the debris from the grenade explosion. She dropped his feet, diving to the doorway to wrench his upper body free from the door’s frame. Bear tried to help her, pulling his shoulder upward while she grabbed his free arm to drag him away from the doorframe. As soon as he cleared, she took a deep breath and slid the assault rifle off her shoulder.

Her mind went astray as she glanced at the weapon, pondering how old it was. The outer casing was metal though similar rifles would now be made of hardened plastics. The extra weight added little value to the weapon, other than make it nearly impossible to fire freehand. There was a rough spot on the underbelly, telling her that the gun was once mounted to a vehicle or stationary guard tower. The various guard towers of the Divinity Corporation facility came to mind, but none of them had ever held such a weapon. The airships had mounted guns by both doors, but they were chain guns that were fed by belts of bullets of a higher caliber.

A boot crunched the floor around the corner, snapping her attention away from the origin of the gun in her hands. Deciding that the method had kept her alive thus far, she bent her knee to the ground and edged the butt of the assault rifle around the door’s frame. The sparks flying from the exposed wiring above the damaged area of the hall offered her a quick glimpse of the terror that headed her way as three distinct shadows were etched on the adjacent wall with each crackle.

Taking her lesson from the first firing of the oversized weapon, she placed the butt of the gun against the strap of her harness, offering her a little more padding. She waited and watched as another muzzle edged around the corner. She inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled. The man’s hand could be seen as the last of the breath left her lungs. She squeezed the trigger, aiming six inches below where she anticipated the man’s head to be a second later. The gun thundered the doorframe. The first bullet went low, but the rising muzzle sent the second shot to her intended target. The man in the gray pants and a black t-shirt was struck in the chest and head. His rifle fired wildly, spraying the hallway with an automatic fire that carved into the plastic wall in front of her. Unlike her shot earlier, the man’s smaller caliber rifle was unable to penetrate the wall, leaving the bullet encases in the exterior.

A second attacker jumped over the fresh body, his rifle firing before his feet found the floor. Janys ducked behind the doorframe as bullets sprayed where her head had been a moment earlier. Her ducking prompted the two approaching men to burst down the hallway. Janys fell on her butt, shoving her feet into the floor and kicking off the back heels, one by one. She inched backward as she lifted the rifle. She pulled the trigger but was a moment too early as the two men had stopped short of the opening. The shots pierced the hallway opposite of the door, sending shards of white plastic into the air. She swore under her breath and pulled the trigger again, but was awarded the mere click of the hammer on an empty chamber.

“Fuck!” she cried as she turned and lunged towards Bear. Her thin fingers stuffed themselves into his pockets, searching for the next clip for the rifle. She found one as she ripped it through the pocket, widening the opening. She had just released the empty clip, preparing to jam the replacement into the chamber when a dark skinned face appeared. His rifle raised, his sights narrowing to Janys’ face. The Corporal felt time slow to a crawl as the clip missed its mark and refused to enter the rifle. The dark skinned soldier smiled as his finger flexed, preparing to pull the trigger.

Janys was deafened, but the blast didn’t come from the open doorway. Her shoulder felt the empty shell smack against her skin as a shot fired from her right. The dark skinned man fell backward as the shot went through his eye. Scurrying footsteps told her that the second man retreated, giving her a moment to reload the assault rifle. She tried three times to get the clip to go into the chamber. A knot formed in her chest as her hands frantically slapped the metal clip against the metal gun. The rifle became heavier by the second as tears of frustration started to blind her.

“Trade me,” Bear muttered, letting the pistol’s grip drop as he held it by the trigger guard.

Janys slammed the clip against the ground, dropping it, as her freed hand brushed the tears away from her eyes. She reached out, feeling the shaft of the pistol slap against her palm. She placed the handgun in her lap as she lugged the heavy rifle over to the Sargent. The rifle pulled from her grip as she snorted, reached out, picked up the clip, and held it up. Like the rifle, the clip slipped away from her grip. She hung her head, her lips moving as she silently tried to calm herself down.

“First firefight?” Bear asked, slamming the clip into the chamber.

She stared ahead, her hand raising to her mouth to wipe the flow of fluids coming from her nostrils. She couldn’t speak, her lungs still heaving in and out, her body wishing to unload her emotions. She nodded, attempting to bury her head into her shoulder.

One large hand grabbed her left shoulder and slowly drew her thin frame into a sea of warmth. She unloaded, sobbing freely into the man’s chest as her body spasmed from the pent up nerves. His fingers smoothed a few red hairs that strayed from the tie in the back of her head, then slowly continued to stroke well after the hair had been laid flat.

“I nearly shit myself after my first one,” he groaned. “Didn’t sleep for two days afterward. Just kept seeing those eyes aiming for me. I didn’t even aim at the guy. I just sprayed bullets everywhere until those eyes quit looking at me.”

Her body quit convulsing long enough for her to compose herself, pulling her head away from the warm chest of the massive man. She drug her forearm across her eyes, trying to wipe away the tears and dirt. She snorted twice, trying to clear her nose enough to allow air to pass, but the fluids were built up too heavily in her nasal passage.

“Now you need to think,” he ordered. “Get on that panel and get us some eyes out there.”

Janys nodded and pushed herself to her feet. Her body felt heavy as she slumped over the panel, her instincts kicking in as her fingers went to work accessing the cameras in the halls and shipping facility. With each press on the screen, her eyes became drier, her nose and head started to clear. After a minute, she’d managed to pull up the camera to the shipping room. The screen showed the two Cybers, clad in body armor, speaking to the man, she’d guessed had just run away from the gunfight. The man shuffled off-screen, heading towards the open bay door. The two Cybers looked at one another, but neither spoke. After a second, the pair headed towards the camera.

The feed to the hallway offered nothing but static. She guessed the camera or line had been damaged during the explosion. Either way, trouble was heading their way.

“We got two inbound Sarge,” she snapped, pulling away from the panel. “You up for this?”

Bear looked to the open doorway, contemplating his options. Right now, it was either pass out, wait to be killed, or use what little senses he had left to save their asses.

“Question is whether you’re ready?” he replied, slowly turning his body in place.

The Sargent managed to lay on his stomach, holding the rifle out in front of him. His head throbbed and the lights from above only intensified his pain. He struggled to focus his eyes but managed to keep his gun aimed at the open doorway.

“Yeah, I’m good,” she replied. “Those two are Cybers, I think.”

“Oh good,” he muttered. “I was starting to get bored.”

Janys edged to the wall, trying to peer down the hallway while still maintaining a line of sight to the computer screen. The two Cybers had disappeared, but she wasn’t able to hear their footsteps crunching on the debris as the previous soldiers had. She stood there with her heart racing, trying to keep a light, yet firm grip on the pistol.

“What’re they doing?” Bear whispered, unable to look up to the screen.

“Don’t know,” she replied, contorting her body to get a longer look down the hallway. “Think they stopped short of the corner.”

Bear needed a moment to think what the Cybers was planning. There was no access to the room, other than to go all the way around to the other hallway. That made little sense as their ship was already loaded, ready for takeoff. They weren’t foolish enough to walk into the deathtrap of the open doorway, knowing that their two guns would mow them down the second they popped their heads into view. The thought came to him, sending panic into his lungs and heart.

“Move your ass,” he hissed, forcing his arms to press his body to a crawling stance.

The large man scurried on all fours, jutting through the doorway and heading to the left. Janys followed closely behind, keeping her gun raised to eye level. She walked backward, never taking her eyes from the damage ahead of her. She was about to turn around when a hand grasped the slack in her pants and yanked her down to the ground. As she fell on top of him for the second time, the pinging of metal could be heard from behind. Bearden wrapped his arms around her head as the hallway erupted, sending shards of the wall at them. Tiny chunks pierced the skin. A metallic groan could be heard from overhead as the support beam started to buckle from the two blast.

“Go, go, go!” Bear snapped.

Janys kicked out with her feet, trying to drag the Sargent behind her. The large man fumbled his feet against the floor, trying to get a foothold as his hands clawed forward. Working together, they managed to pass through the frame of the security door as the overhead beam collapsed, sealing them off from the Cybers and their harriers.

The Corporal collapsed on the floor as pieces continued to fall from the ceiling. The lights on the other side of the doorway blinked out, sparks from the ceiling the only lights to be seen in the cloud of smoke and dust.

“Close it,” Bear ordered, pulling himself up to a seated position against the wall.

Janys stumbled to the panel, undoing the bypass she’d performed to gain entry ten minutes earlier. The door slid shut, preventing the dust and smoke from pouring through the open doorway. She thought about the soldiers that’d been lost in the first explosion, realizing that she hadn’t even managed a glimpse at their faces. She’d never know whom she’d lost versus who’d willingly left with the Cybers in the harrier. No one would ever know who were heroes and who were traitors. The thought didn’t sit well in her stomach.

“Sarge, come in,” a voice crackled over the speaker from the wall.

Bearden motioned to Janys and waited for her to begin the link. She pressed a few icons on the screen, smoothing out the steady stream of static coming from the unseen speaker.

“He’s listening,” she stated, collapsing against the wall.

“Oh, thank God,” the voice continued. “The harriers are lifting off Sargent. I called down to the defense turrets, but I’m yet to receive a response. I sent two men to investigate, but I doubt they’ll reach the station in time.”

Bearden offered Janys a worried look as they silently contemplated the three men she’d left to protect the defensive grid. They both wondered if the men had been killed, or if they were in on the attack, keeping their true nature hidden until the moment arrived to gain an opportunity.

“I copy,” Bear snapped. “Tell your men to be careful, we don’t know who we can trust.”