by Dean M. Cole
Rourke couldn’t believe the light-hearted way the rest of the team members were going about this. He was shaking in his boots, literally, and his hands were so unsteady, he could barely keep the gun camera under control. “Y-You people are cr-crazy,” he blurted. “This is ridiculous! We’re about to die, and you’re cracking jokes!”
Bingham looked over at him and winked. “We’ve all got to die someday, boy-oh, but it’s not every day you get to do it with a good chance of coming back.”
Rourke glared at the man. “I guess you finally get to have your nuke and eat it, too.”
Chance’s smile broadened. “Now you’re getting the hang of it, chap.” He pointed at the belly cannon. “How about you give that thing a little exercise. Want the bastards to know we’re still in the game, right?”
Rourke blinked and then looked back at the display. “Oh shit.” Slewing the camera to point aft again, he quickly found the horde of chasing caterpillar bots. The things were racing over structures, mowing down what little bit was left and launching a cloud of dust behind themselves.
He aimed at the lead element and fired the weapon. It barked to life, lighting up the inside frame of the hellhole with rapid yellow pulses. The concussive discharge of each shot shook his innards, making his guts feel as if they were trembling every bit as much as were his hands.
The front flank of the advancing caterpillars dissolved under the fusillade of explosive bullets. Vaughn had told him the 30mm rounds had the same hitting power as those fired by the Apache attack helicopter. Rourke didn’t know about that, but he thought they did an excellent job against the metal bodies of the caterpillar bots.
Monique looked forward and held up a thumb. “Good shooting, Doctor Geller. Chance’s delivery may leave something to be desired. However, the wing commander is correct. At least we have the consolation of knowing we may come back. If we do not, then … we have lost, and there was nothing left here for us anyway.”
Rourke tightened the corner of his mouth. “What if it’s not us that comes back? What if …? What if we don’t remember any of this?”
This time, no one issued a sharp retort. The looks on their faces told Rourke he’d struck a nerve. A wave of guilt washed over him. They’d been having the same thought, but he’d been the only one stupid enough to give it voice. “Ah, shit … I’m sorry.”
Rachel gave him a wan smile. “You remember what I told you about ifs?”
For a moment, Rourke stared back blankly. Then a grin inched across his face. “Yeah. If my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle.”
“Exactly. Let’s leave the what-ifs behind.” She pointed at the belly cannon’s controller. “Put your energy into getting a little payback while you still can.”
He looked at Rachel a moment and then gave her a short nod before returning his attention to the weapon’s display.
The bastards were still chasing after the slowly advancing aircraft, following it as if the thing were the Pied Piper. Focusing his anger, Rourke gnashed his teeth and pressed the fire button. “Die, you pieces of shit!”
“Good job, Rourky,” Rachel called from the front. “Keep engaging them. I’m going to climb higher. Need to put some room between us and the ground. Don’t want to create a crater that might cave in the collider tunnel.”
Looking up, Rourke swallowed. They were actually going to do it. These might be the last moments of his life.
In spite of their big talk, Monique and Bingham exchanged nervous glances.
The whine of the tiltrotor’s engines ramped up, and the aircraft started to climb.
Major Lee looked back. “Not yet, Chauncey-Baby. We’ll wait till we see the light. Need to give Team Two all the time we can.”
“Are you sure about that, Major?” Bingham asked, turning raised eyebrows toward Rachel. “Judging by the number of mechanical eyes staring at us right now, I’m pretty sure they have a good fix on our exact location. The first light that comes through may be the one that takes us out. We might blink and suddenly find we’re flying through Hell.”
“I don’t care. It’s just a chance we’ll have to take, Chance.” Rachel paused and winked at Rourke. “See what I did there?” She returned her attention to Bingham. “I won’t have you wiping out both teams. If you detonate that thing too early, you’ll risk the entire mission.”
The wing commander pointed through the open rear ramp. “If we get beamed to Hell, all those bastards will be free to seek out the other team. Our delay might doom humanity.” The man’s eyes lost focus, and his voice dropped. “My family will stay buried at the bottom of that damned mountain.”
Momentarily forgetting his own worries, Rourke watched the man struggle with his emotions. Head lowered, Chance stared through the floor of the cargo bay.
Finally, Bingham sighed and keyed his microphone again. “Don’t worry, Major. I’ll not get trigger-happy. Just … Just let me know when you see the bloody light. I’ll do the rest.”
Rachel’s eyes softened. “I know you will, Chance.”
They spent the next several minutes circling Geneva as if searching for a way back into the collider complex, while not getting too close to the construction site.
Both Rourke and Monique continued to pour fire into the pursuing caterpillar bots. The machine army was starting to cut a circular path of destruction around the already pulverized city. Their passage raised dust high into the atmosphere. However, the strong north wind was sweeping the cloud toward Mont Salève on the south side of the city.
As they flew over the airport, Angela turned the V-22 east, affording Rourke a view of the Necks’ cauldron through the back of the airplane. It looked like they were only about a half-mile from it. The sky had started to glow faintly with the coming sunrise. While it was still relatively dark outside, Rourke found he could make out some of the structures without the need for night-vision goggles.
Between the alien construction site and the remainder of the burned-out city lay a few rectangular plots of scorched farmland. The east-west highway they’d initially planned to follow from the airport cut a gray line across the monochromatic scene.
With mounting dread, Rourke eyed the alien edifice that now squatted over CERN, wondering when the Necks would complete their evacuation and reinitiate their purge.
How many more of them could there be?
Surely the light would come soon.
Hope inched its way into his thoughts.
What if Angela had been wrong?
What if the robots were giving up on this world?
Maybe they—
Flinching, Rourke and his two fellow teammates in the back of the aircraft winced and raised arms reflexively.
As if heralded by thought alone, a brilliant beam of blue-white light shot through the base of the stadium-sized cauldron and burned into the sky, incinerating Rourke’s short-lived pipe dream.
Dust swirled through the vertically oriented laser beam-like column of fluorescing energy.
“It’s here,” Bingham said flatly, lowering the arm he’d raised. Bending over the device, he looked toward the cockpit. “I have the weapon ready to fire. Need only press the enter key one more time.”
Eyes wide, Rourke looked forward and saw both Rachel and Mark staring back. The two pilots exchanged a glance. Then Rachel looked at Rourke and winked. “It’ll all be okay, Rourky.” Addressing the rest of the team, she added, “It’s been an honor to serve with all of—”
Her eyes went round with shock as she stared past them. “Oh God! Fire it! Fire it now, Chance!”
Snapping his head left, Rourke looked outside.
The light beam no longer looked like a laser. It had ballooned into a rapidly expanding cone, a narrow wedge with its point of origin buried two-hundred feet underground. The wall of ethereal light raced toward the back of the airplane with incredible speed.
Rourke’s brain sent a signal to his arm, ordering it to raise as a shield.
The electrical impulse never reached it
s destination.
Chapter 53
Vaughn watched the barrel of his ruined M4 rifle bend as BOb wrenched its stock. Wedged into the spokes of the wheel, the weapon made an excellent lever. He had considered having the bot beam them into ATLAS with the BFG’s final discharge, but it would have simply deposited them on the surface above the facility. He didn’t see emerging into a nuclear blast front as being an improvement in their situation. However, seeing the length of the BFG had reminded him of the benefits of leverage.
A loud snap echoed through the narrow tunnel.
Vaughn’s eyes went wide. “Did the barrel break?”
A severe squeal cut across his words.
Finally, the handle began to turn.
A moment later, the robot wrenched open the door, revealing a wider, metal-lined passageway beyond. A broken length of chain sat on its floor.
Vaughn urged the others through. “Go! Go! Go!”
Guns raised, Bill and Teddy darted through the opening followed closely by Angela.
Passing through the hatch, Vaughn pulled BOb in behind him. “Latch it! Hurry!”
Deciding the robot was moving too slow, he lunged forward and pulled the large metal panel.
The massive door slammed home with enough force to cause the ground to shake.
The trembling continued as BOb spun the wheel.
Then the hatch lurched in its frame.
Dust shot out from its entire periphery, and the ground heaved.
At the same moment, a pressure wave drove agonizing daggers of pain into Vaughn’s ears.
Hands thrown over ears, they all stumbled back from the hatch.
Staring at the door, Vaughn understood.
That had been the nuke.
He exchanged glances with Angela, Bill, and Teddy.
Mark was gone. The man who’d been his friend through most of his adult life had been vaporized in the blink of an eye.
Rachel, too. The woman who’d survived so many special operations combat deployments and was one of the best pilots he’d ever worked with.
Gone.
Rourke … Monique.
Gone.
Even the loss of Bingham dug a pit in his soul.
More than half the remaining human population …
Gone.
These were people who’d followed him into battle, and now there was nothing left of them but a cloud of disassociated atoms.
After a seeming eternity, the quaking faded and then ceased.
Vaughn shook his head. Turning from the blast door that had saved their lives, he looked at the remaining members of humanity. “We … We need to get moving. Otherwise, their sacrifice will be for nothing.”
Angela stared at him, steely resolve in her eyes. “We’ll bring them back.” She looked at Vaughn significantly and momentarily tilted her head to the side. “All of them, the whole damned world.”
He swallowed hard and then gave a sharp nod. “You’re right.”
Bill and Teddy looked as shocked as Vaughn felt. The cosmonaut looked up warily. “Light wave coming, yes?”
Angela shook her head. “The light will have to travel quite a way across the surface before the beam coming from the wormhole gets low enough to reach us this far underground, but we do need to hurry.”
“She’s right.” Vaughn gestured toward ATLAS and patted BOb’s shoulder. “Nothing will be following us, so you take point. Kill anything that moves.” After a moment, he winced and added, “Just try not to break the collider.”
For once, the robot didn’t quip or crack a joke. It merely nodded and headed deeper into the facility. Then BOb hoisted one of his grenade launchers overhead and turned it sideways.
Face twisted, Angela looked at Vaughn. “What’s he doing now?”
As if in answer, the robot whispered menacingly into the darkness. “Say hello to my little friend.”
Staring at the silhouette of the raised weapon, Vaughn gnashed his teeth and cursed under his breath. “After I get done kicking the ass of whoever programmed this damn thing, I’m going to have a serious talk with them about comedic timing.”
Pausing, Vaughn tilted his head. Something didn’t look right. At first, he couldn’t put a finger on it, but then he saw the issue. It was the silhouette.
“Everyone turn off your lights.”
After returning a few confused looks, they all complied.
Looking toward the robot, Vaughn raised an arm and pointed. “There’s light ahead.”
“Good grief!” Bill said. “You’re right.”
After exchanging looks, the four of them chased after the robot.
The light grew in intensity as they ventured down the hallway.
Soon, they reached a partially closed doorway.
Vaughn grabbed the robot’s shoulder. “BOb, I want you to, silently, open that door and clear the room beyond.”
The bot looked back as if to speak.
Narrowing his eyes, Vaughn held up a finger. “Uh-uh! Not a damned word.”
After a momentary pause, BOb turned and eased open the door.
The three humans winced as bright light poured into the hallway.
The robot leaned through the opening. It glanced left and right. Then its mechanical muscles silently ushered the machine forward. It eased through the doorway and quickly passed out of sight.
Teddy looked after the bot and then glanced at Vaughn. “I am happy he is on our side.”
Vaughn raised an eyebrow. “I guess.”
He flinched as BOb’s gray head popped back into the opening. Then the bot whispered, “The room is clear, Captain Asshole.”
Vaughn sighed. “Shit.” Shaking his head, he signaled for Bill and Teddy to proceed to the door that adorned the room’s far wall, gesturing for them to position themselves to its left and right. Then he and Angela crossed the open space and took up station behind them.
Cleaning supplies lined racks of shelves. A mop bucket sat in the middle of the small room’s floor. Murky water still filled its interior, but the mop was missing. Vaughn wondered if it might be at the bottom of Mont de Los Muertos, still clutched in the janitor’s decaying hands.
He shook the vision from his mind and turned his attention back to the new door.
Bill and Teddy were peering through its window.
“See anything?” Angela asked.
“Da, Command-Oh. Lots of pipes.”
Bill nodded. “Looks like we’re close to ATLAS.”
Vaughn leaned out and saw the same thing. He tapped the major’s shoulder and whispered, “Do you see any movement?”
Both men shook their heads.
Bill looked back at him. “Looks like a ghost town in there.”
Vaughn nodded. “Glad to hear the Necks haven’t left a greeting party for us.” He glanced at Angela. “Do you know where we are? Can you find your way to a network terminal from here?”
“Yeah. We’re pretty close to the control room, actually.”
“Good.” Vaughn paused and looked around. Spotting something that should work for his purpose, he pointed. “BOb. Over here.”
“What are you doing, El Capitan?”
“You two stand guard for a moment.” Stepping over to the small door, he opened it and found that, as he’d suspected, it was a coat closet. He shoved aside the few hanging garments that occupied the space and pointed at the floor. “Set the nuke here.”
Using its anatomically odd ability to bend its arms in multiple directions, the robot reached around itself and extracted the cone-shaped nuclear device from its large backpack. Then it gently deposited the thing onto the floor of the small closet.
Angela looked at him. “What are you doing?”
Vaughn took a knee next to the device and looked up. “How much time do you need?”
She blanched. “Why? What are you doing?”
“Setting a failsafe. This is why we brought this. If we don’t make it, if they beam us out, we can at least deny the bastards this world.”<
br />
Angela nodded, cold resolve in her eyes.
The look concerned Vaughn. He didn’t know if it was good or bad.
She skewed her mouth as she calculated. Then she held up two fingers. “Twenty minutes should be enough. Even with the longer build-up that Rourke told us about, the actual reset shouldn’t take more than ten minutes, max. It’ll take us a couple of minutes to get there plus a few more for me to program the reset and insert the Morse code message.”
“The SOS that you’re going to put in the interference pattern?”
“Yes, so a total of twenty minutes should do it.”
After looking at her for a long moment, Vaughn gave a short nod and then bent over the device. He punched in twenty-five minutes and pressed the enter key three times. Then he repeated the process, hesitating after the second press of the enter key. He looked up at Angela and pointed at her watch. “That thing still working?”
She nodded her understanding. “Yes. Hang on. Let me bring up the timer.” Angela pressed a button on the side of the watch and then looked at him.
Vaughn scrunched up his face. “I sure as hell hope Monique got this right. If I press the enter key and this thing blows up immediately, I’m going to be really pissed.”
Angela nodded. “Only one way to find out.”
Returning the gesture, Vaughn said, “Start the timer on one.”
She dipped her head.
“Three …”
Still standing by the door, Bill and Teddy watched with wide eyes.
“Two …”
Vaughn swallowed.
“One!”
He pressed the button.
Then he flinched as a single, loud chime rang out from the device. At the same time, Angela’s watch beeped.
As a long breath hissed through his lips, he watched the display trip 24:59.
24:58
24:57
Vaughn looked up at Angela. “Time’s-a-wasting. Better get moving.”
