by Jan Domagala
“Very good, now let’s get in there before he gets out the other way,” Rand replied as the two guards went before them.
“Other way? You should’ve sent guards to cover every exit,” Sinclair said angrily, he didn’t want Maguire to escape due to the incompetence of internal security.
“There’s only this one door, General,” Rand replied, further confusing him.
“Then what the hell are you talking about? Oh, you mean escape using the SUT?”
“No, I’m betting by now he’s having trouble even thinking straight. He won’t dare use the SUT again, not if he’s about to do what I think he’s about to do.”
“Okay, now you’ve lost me again,” Sinclair said, his frustration mounting.
“Don’t worry, General, you’ll see what I mean soon enough,” Rand said, not explaining at all. “Okay guys, let’s get that door open,” he added ordering the guards to move in.
* * * * *
The sound from the huge machine was devastatingly loud and Hawk wondered what it did. One thing was obvious; apart from making a lot of noise it used an awful lot of power.
Peering around the side he could see Maguire standing about twenty feet away from the machine, staring intently at it, the Sig held loosely by his side.
Catching sight of Hawk watching him Maguire brought up the Sig and fired at him, but his hand was shaking so badly by this time that the bolt went wide of it’s mark by feet rather than inches.
Quite suddenly there was a sound like a huge thunderclap that originated from the machine and reverberated around the huge chamber. The look of satisfaction and relief on Maguire’s face was palpable.
Hawk knew then that whatever Maguire had set out to do, was done.
* * * * *
Outside the chamber Rand said, “That’s gunfire,” and then when he heard the thunderclap he said, “We’ve run out of time, get that door open, now.”
“What the hell was that sound?” Sinclair asked.
Rand turned to him and said, “It’s started.”
30
Hawk knew he had to do something, anything, to stop the clone from doing what he was about to do, even though he had no clue what it was. Taking into consideration that Maguire worked for OMEGA, whatever he intended was bound to be extremely bad.
On his side was the fact he was feeling stronger each second as the effects from the trip were wearing off faster than he thought possible, considering how bad he’d felt at first. Also on the plus side was that the same effects seem to be worsening for Maguire. On the down side though he was still unarmed and pinned down by Maguire and, as ineffective as his aim was, there was still a danger from a lucky shot.
All that went through his mind in a flash with no obvious solution. Then, when he peered around the huge machine and saw Maguire walking towards it, he knew whatever he was planning to do would have to be done now.
Behind Maguire the door to the chamber began to open and as he turned to look, Hawk made his move.
Thrusting off the ground with his powerful legs, renewed strength returning to him with every passing second, he powered towards Maguire. Head down, arms pumping to gain maximum speed, he ran at the clone closing the distance between them with each ground-eating stride.
With Hawk just a few feet away, Maguire turned back to face him and braced himself for the impact.
As he got closer to Maguire Hawk saw two things in his peripheral vision. On his left where the door was, he noticed figures entering and two of them looked like Rand and Sinclair, but on the right, amazingly, the front portion of the huge machine had vanished to be replaced by what he could only describe as an energy vortex. Before he hit Maguire in a running tackle he wondered what the hell it was.
Without realising it, seeing the energy vortex made him slow down and instead of bowling Maguire over they collided but remained on their feet.
Striking the side of Hawk’s head with the Sig gave Maguire control again. Stars burst before Hawk’s eyes as they grappled in front of the vortex.
Hawk refused to let go as Maguire pounded on him with his fist and the butt of the Sig. Inch by agonising inch he dragged the Col Sec agent with him towards the energy vortex and as they got closer, although he had no idea what it could be, instinct told Hawk to stay clear.
Through the door four men entered the chamber and saw Hawk and Maguire struggling at the edge of the massive vortex. It was almost large enough to drive an ATV through, and Sinclair gasped in awe at the magnificent sight, breathlessly asking, “What in hell is that?”
“It’s the Gateway.”
“To what?”
“C’mon, we have to stop them,” Rand said, cutting off further questioning as he motioned the armed guards forward.
Maguire looked up through pain-filled eyes, saw the guards approaching and with one last blow to the back of Hawk’s head made his way towards the vortex.
Hawk felt the blow strike his head and almost blacked out. Feeling his strength leave him, he collapsed to his knees and knew it would be so easy to just stay there, to give up.
Maguire felt Hawk’s grip slacken and he knew that victory would be his and OMEGA’s in just a few short steps, once he’d reached the vortex.
To give up was not in Hawk’s nature though and as he saw the clone move off towards the vortex he was filled with a grim determination. It fuelled his limbs with power and with a strength he couldn’t imagine was possible he got up from his knees and ran at Maguire. This time there was no distraction and when he struck the retreating clone in a flying tackle he had the advantage. What he didn’t consider though was the momentum he’d gathered by the time they collided. Without thinking he struck the clone with such force that both of them went straight into the vortex and vanished.
“NO!” screamed Sinclair in horror.
Rand turned to him and said, “Come on, we can’t let them escape.”
Sinclair stopped in his tracks, looked at Rand and said, “What?”
* * * * *
Hawk and Maguire collided on the edge of the vortex and Hawk’s momentum carried them both into it, through it and out the other side to land on the floor of another chamber somewhere else entirely.
Immediately lights came on illuminating the huge chamber, the twin of the one they’d just left.
The vortex was still active behind them as they rolled on the floor and, although Hawk was aware of having travelled somewhere, he didn’t know how, just a sense that he’d moved, but this time there was no disruption to his nervous system. He could think clearly.
Maguire got to his feet and aimed the Sig, which somehow he’d kept hold of, straight at Hawk’s head.
“Don’t move Agent Man, as you can see my hand isn’t as steady as it should be. I’m dying but I can assure you, not before you,” Maguire said with a sneer, but the pain in his eyes told the truth.
“Why don’t you let me help you, perhaps our medical staff can find a cure,” Hawk pleaded, hoping to buy some time until he thought of a way of overpowering him.
“There’s no cure for death and anyway, I gladly give my life for OMEGA. It’s my purpose in life.”
“Ah yes, the blind obedience factor, I’ve seen this before in other clones, just before I killed them.”
“You won’t get that chance here, I can assure you.”
“Then get on with it, why the delay?”
“I don’t want you to die without seeing my victory.”
“Which is?”
“I download all the data pertaining towards this project, the Gateway Project, then upload it to OMEGA’s servers and then we’ll have the capability to…”
“Yada, yada, yada, yeah okay, cut the crap. Why now, why not before, why wait until we were here?” interrupted Hawk.
“You give yourself far too much credit Agent Man. You think all this was for your benefit? To what, rub your noses in it, so to speak? Don’t be so naïve; this project is about to go online tomorrow. This base will be fully operational by th
en and the staff will arrive at eight am. This was the only opportunity I had to gain access to the codes required. You just happened to stumble into this by accident. Your distraction of Rand actually gave me the chance to do this,” explained Maguire.
“Bullshit, you don’t want me to see all this,” Hawk said as he watched the clone concentrate on something.
“I’ve downloaded all the data,” Maguire said.
“You’re so fucked up you can’t multi-task any more, you can only concentrate on one thing at a time,” Hawk said and he lunged forward grabbing the extended arm holding the Sig at the wrist, turning it away from him. Then he smashed his fist into Maguire’s face snapping his head back with an explosion of teeth and blood.
Twisting the Sig from the clone’s grip he quickly aimed at him and fired. The pulsed plasma bolt struck the clone in the centre of his forehead exploding the top of his head in a spray of blood, bone fragments and pulped brain tissue.
“Say hi to Jonas for me,” Hawk said as he stood over the lifeless corpse.
A sound behind him alerted him to movement. Turning he saw four figures rushing through the Gateway.
“Cool, isn’t it!” Hawk said when he saw the expression on Sinclair’s face. “Oh don’t worry, Maguire is over there, very much dead,” he added when he saw Rand’s worried expression.
“What happened?” Rand asked.
“He was going to download all the data to this Gateway Project and upload it to OMEGA’s servers. I’m assuming he was using his NI so I shot him in the head before he could upload it,” explained Hawk.
“Why now? What is this Gateway Project and where the hell are we?” Sinclair asked, just wanting some answers. He felt he’d been kept in the dark for long enough.
“I’m sure Mister Rand can fill us in with all the details but Maguire told me our distraction gave him the chance to gain access to the codes before this base goes online tomorrow morning, is that right, sir?” Hawk replied, inviting Rand to offer some insight.
“Yes, this base is due to go operational tomorrow and I must thank you for preventing what could’ve been a tragedy,” Rand said.
“Just where the hell are we?” Sinclair asked finally.
“On the Moon, General, or rather several miles beneath her surface,” Rand said and he watched their expressions as the news sank in.
“But… well… er… the Moon you say, but we were…” Sinclair was at a loss for words.
“What General Sinclair is trying to say is, how?” Hawk said putting the question forward they both wanted answering.
“Quite simple really, we came through the Gateway which in layman’s terms is a hyperspace window or tunnel, if you prefer, one opening here, and the other on Earth.”
“Before we go any further, is there any way to verify that Maguire didn’t upload any data off this base?” Hawk asked. Although he was fascinated by this new project he was more concerned that the technology didn’t fall into the hands of OMEGA and was bastardised into a weapon to be used against the Confederation.
“I can check to see if any transmissions left the base,” Rand said, going over to the computer terminal Maguire had accessed earlier.
“As far as I can tell, he managed to download the data but no transmissions of any kind were detected emanating from this base by the sensors,” Rand said after running a diagnostic on the sensor logs to check they hadn’t been tampered with.
“Are you sure? Could he have relayed it through another transmitter or piggybacked it onto something else?” Hawk persisted wanting to be sure.
“I can assure you, Matt, nothing left here. There were no transmissions within five miles in any direction from here so you can relax.”
“Just how big is this base Rand and what’s it used for?” Sinclair asked, suspicion growing in his mind.
“It covers over five square miles, has twenty levels and it reaches almost ten miles down from the surface. We’re on level eighteen by the way and it’s used for, or I hope it will be used for, the security of the Confederation.”
“I don’t follow, how can it be used for the security of the Confederation?” Sinclair asked still suspicious but now confused too.
“You planned on handing this base over to Col Sec tomorrow, didn’t you?” Hawk said.
Rand nodded his head and said, “When we all learned of the attack on Confederation Headquarters by an unknown terrorist force as the news channels put it, I decided that this base would be ideal for whatever you need it to be. When it was on the drawing board I originally planned to use it for Research and Development, and the Gateway Project was five years into development by then anyway, all the major tests having been run here.”
“I thought you said it was going operational tomorrow?” Sinclair asked still not quite clear on the details surrounding this base.
“General, we’ve been operating out of this base for the last three years, we moved the Gateway here then so we could really test it. The day of the attack I shut the base down and withdrew my people. If you hadn’t come to see me I would’ve asked to see you sometime next week. How do you think you got an appointment to see the CEO of one of the top five megacorps at such short notice, even President Takagi has to book a couple of days in advance?”
“That explains how you knew we’d be friends, you already envisioned us working together,” Hawk said.
“A bit premature, I admit, but here we are,” Rand agreed smiling.
“Tell me more about Maguire, the Rover,” Hawk asked.
“Rover?”
“It’s what Wilde called them.”
“Okay, well he’s been with us for about ten years and for the last three years he’s been an executive assistant to the board, consisting of myself and Josh and Jess, my two children. So he was a clone, what gave him away?”
“His eyes, and they all look alike, like identical twins. The moment I saw him I knew he was your mole. I’ll lay odds on there being one in the executive offices of every major business in the Confederation. General, if that’s true then this has just gained another dimension,” Hawk said, a worried look crossing his face.
“Then it’s just as well you have this new base of operations, isn’t it?” Rand said.
“What are you looking to gain out of this?” Sinclair asked pointedly.
“I’m a patriot, General, but I’m also a businessman. This base is yours for the Confederation to use. All I ask is fair consideration on any of the tec and munitions contracts up for grabs. My corporation can provide the best you could ask for and more at a fair price. You said yourself you need an alternative to MaxCorp, which has been supplying both you and OMEGA. I’ll even bet they kept back some of the upgrades to give OMEGA the edge and, judging by the Nemesis attack, I’m not far wrong.”
“I’m afraid you’re right, I can’t disagree on that point,” Sinclair said.
“Do we have a deal then?” Rand asked.
Offering his hand Sinclair said, “We do indeed, Able.”
“Great, wait ’til you see what else we have for you,” Rand said, smiling broadly as he accepted the firm handshake to seal the deal.
31
The rest of the day went smoothly with Able Rand giving them a tour of their new base and explaining how the Gateway worked. Then they enjoyed a relaxed lunch after which they returned to their respective jobs.
Sinclair and Hawk returned to New York to organise the movement of staff to the new base and whatever else it entailed.
RandCorp supplied Col Sec with new com. units until upgrades for all NIs formerly supplied by MaxCorp could be implemented. Basically they were similar to the ear bug supplied by Tec Division but with a greater range which could reach anywhere on a planet, with encrypted audio and muscle flex operation. That meant there was no need to key the ear bug any more, it was now possible to activate it by a certain muscle flex, similar to clenching the jaw. They toyed with the idea of voice activation but how to differentiate between a call and normal conversation was
a problem. Keyword activation was thought of but that would mean it being on constantly, monitoring all conversations, and choosing which words could activate and end a call? Finally it was decided that manual control would be best. The new unit fitted much better as it was smaller and more comfortable so the wearer was hardly aware of it and there was no impairment to the hearing when it wasn’t in use.
New sidearms were also issued, the Sig P999, a smaller more compact version of the P996 with only one setting – maximum. This gave a full load of twenty shots with the same range as the earlier model. Being a full three centimetres shorter and weighing almost a hundred grams less, it fitted well inside the custom-made holster beneath an agent’s jacket where it would be unobserved.
Hawk tested the new Sig on the firing range at Fort Brag as he underwent debriefing and put in some light training. After getting through three battery clips he felt as if it was almost like an extension of himself and he gladly replaced the larger, bulkier P996.
Sinclair contacted President Takagi with an update on the OMEGA situation and the new deal he’d struck with Able Rand. He was sitting in his office in Col Sec HQ at Area 15 when he made the call through a secure video link.
After the briefing Takagi said, “And what are your thoughts General?”
“My thoughts, sir?”
“As to the validity of Rand’s offer of the base and other supplies.”
“The base is extremely well equipped, the standard of which we’re just not used to from MaxCorp. The arms already supplied to us are excellent. Matt has given the new Sig P999 a thorough testing and it’s received his go ahead. He’s already adopted it as his personal weapon of choice and I’ve given Recon Delta the green light for a change over to it. The com. units are working fine and will do so until we can upgrade the NIs with new tec from RandCorp and then OMEGA won’t be able to track or eavesdrop on our operatives. I’ve seen the new Cobra battle tec helmet already and on first inspection it seems an improvement on the Rapier. Again Recon Delta is giving it the run through as we speak and we should have a full report on it by the weekend.”
