Resurgence

by Peter Hoole

  For the first time in a long time, Robert smiled.

  “Excellent work doctor.”

  ***

  Sine Casey and Murphy has left the room, Caleb had remained silent, sitting next to Darcy on the couch. His intent was to ensure the prisoners – Jane and William – felt uneasy. It would have been easy to start questioning them straight away, but Caleb had been trained in some interrogation techniques, and he felt the subtle approach would be of benefit.

  Caleb already figured the prisoners would be feeling apprehensive.

  From what he knew of the Colonials, they were a conceited group – more arrogant than Caleb had encountered in the past. While it normally wouldn’t have helped get information, their arrogance was an asset to Caleb. He felt that because of their egotism and confidence, they had lived in a bubble, away from the world. Never having truly experience what it was like to be on the losing side, they would not know how to handle their current situation, emotionally at least.

  The silence had fulfilled its intent. Caleb noticed Jane starting to shift in position, squirming against the cable-ties that bound her hands together. Her face, once full of confidence at the nightclub, had turned into a wreck.

  “What do you want from us?” she blurted out.

  Caleb knew he was in control of her.

  But, he did not have control of William. The Englishman that had shot him in Haven had barely moved.

  Caleb imagined it had to do with his training. He figured William was cut from the same cloth as he was – a soldier.

  However, as long as Jane was there, they could find some information.

  But not just yet.

  Caleb wanted her to squirm a little more.

  After she spoke, he stood up, and walked towards her. The size of the room meant he could only take a few steps. But he approached, and his large frame made him seem formidable.

  Jane backed away as much as she could.

  Caleb stood in front of her for a few moments, hoping she would find further despair in her situation.

  Darcy sat on the couch, watching Caleb. Dunleavy had settled on the arm of the couch next to her, a look of approval on his face.

  Dunleavy’s background in the Central Intelligence Agency would have allowed him to witness many interrogations before.

  After several more moments, Caleb spoke.

  “You two have a choice,” he began, almost whispering, “You either help us, or you don’t. If you help us, we will not kill you.”

  Though Caleb wanted to scare them, he also wanted to provide them with an incentive to cooperate.

  “If you don’t,” he replied, “I will put a bullet in your brain. From what I understand about you all, your precious serum won’t save you from that…”

  Jane was visibly scared.

  “What do you want to know?” she blurted out.

  William shot a look of disgust at the nurse, clearly unhappy that she had seemingly broken so quickly.

  Caleb took a step back, so as to lower his imposing façade.

  “We need information.” Caleb stated.

  Jane looked up at her captor, seemingly ready to help.

  “What do you want to know?” she repeated.

  Before Caleb could begin, Darcy interrupted, “How is Caleb still alive?”

  Caleb didn’t challenge the question.

  While it is not the question he was going to ask, he could see it was relevant to Darcy. Considering that she and Casey were currently the only people he truly trusted, he decided to allow her question to stand.

  Jane paused, as though searching for an answer.

  “I’ll tell you what I tell everyone I meet in your position…” Caleb said as her saw her pause, “I’ve done many of these before. If you lie, or even if I think you are lying, I will consider you of no use, and I will put a bullet in your brain.”

  “Very well…” Jane said with a sense of defeat, “It was the Source.”

  Caleb and Darcy both knew of the Source, but they had yet to hear of its true nature.

  “Tell me more about it.” Darcy urged the nurse to continue.

  “I’ll tell you what I know…” Jane began, “We found it… I mean… it was found by James and his men nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, when they first came to Australia. I’m not sure of the exact details, but it was found in a well under Haven.”

  “How does it work?” asked Darcy.

  “That’s a good question. Only Helen and her mentor really know. I was a nurse that helped her to modify it.”

  “Modify it?” Caleb asked.

  “Yeah… the Source can prolong life, and even stop people from dying. But it wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t key to immortality that they thought when they first found it.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Darcy

  “When you have your first dose of the Source, it reduces your physical age to around about thirty years old. But it could only do that for so long. Eventually, the founders discovered they were still aging, albeit at a much slower rate. So, after time, they tried to modify it.”

  William continued his intense look of dissatisfaction at Jane, but the nurse continued, “It was Helen’s responsibility to ensure the Source needed to be taken once and once only. We worked on it for many years, but through much trial and error, we developed the serum.”

  “So… what you’re saying is that Caleb will live forever?” asked Dunleavy, finally joining the conversation.

  “Not quite. He was shot, and most of the work done by the Source was to revive him. But he is back, and he will live longer. But without regular doses of the Source, or a direct injection of the serum, I’m afraid he will die eventually.” Jane turned and faced Caleb, “I’m sorry.”

  Caleb shook his head, “You say ‘Sorry’ like it’s a bad thing. Nothing’s changed for me. Yesterday, I was going to die eventually. Today… I’m going to die eventually. Only you and your buddies think that’s a bad thing.”

  William finally spoke, “Of course it’s a bad thing.” he said with venom in his voice.

  “How do you figure that?”

  After shaking his head in disbelief, William responded.

  “Imagine what we will accomplish in our lifetime…” said the Englishman, “You have maybe another fifty years to reach all your goals. We will have forever. We will achieve everything we ever want to, while you all turn to dust.”

  Caleb had to contain his anger. Remembering his conversation with James the previous day, he recalled the cost of the Colonials plan.

  “But at what cost?” Caleb asked rhetorically, “James told me what you were planning to do. You were there remember?”

  William returned to his silent state.

  “Nothing else to add?” Caleb asked, not expecting a response.

  Darcy had continued to listen, and asked, “What are you talking about, Caleb?”

  Caleb turned to his girlfriend, and walked towards her. He looked into her eyes, “They want the future, but they don’t want to share it with anyone.”

  “What do you mean,” Darcy asked.

  Caleb feared she already knew the answer, but he gave it anyway.

  “They’re planning on killing everyone.”

  Darcy was taken aback.

  “Wait… Everyone?” she asked.

  “Yeah… I think James said the world was…” Caleb turned back to William, “infected, right? That’s the word he used. James believes the world needs to be fixed, and that you assholes are just the ones to do it right?”

  William scoffed.

  “How are they going to do it?” Darcy asked.

  Caleb turned around so his body faced the prisoners, “That’s one thing I didn’t find out. But we will now.”

  cHAPTER eLEVEN

  “So… who wants to tell us?” Caleb said to Jane and William.

  William turned away from Caleb, as though to reinforce his lack of cooperation.

  Jane continued to look at Caleb. He noticed this, so Caleb focused
his attention on the nurse.

  “What’s your name?” he said, trying to become familiar with the woman.

  “Jane…” she replied sheepishly.

  “Ok then, Jane, you need to tell us what we need to know.”

  “What do you mean? I don’t know what they were planning.”

  Caleb could see the slight flicker of deception in her eyes.

  “Jane…” he began, leaning in and changing his voice to a menacing whisper, “Remember what I said about lying to me. Consider this your first strike. But this… this isn’t baseball. You only get one strike…”

  Jane responded, “Ok, ok, ok…” she said, “I’ll tell you.”

  Caleb stood back up, and motioned for her to continue.

  “It a virus.”

  “Would you please shut up!!!” he exclaimed, “They will kill us anyway.”

  Caleb leant forward and hit William across his face with such force that the Englishman fell off his knees and slumped to the floor. Caleb was certain he had knocked him out.

  “Please… continue.” Caleb said, wringing his hand, “You said a virus.”

  Jane was in a bit of shock at the hit on William, and she paused, shaking, before she answered, “Yes. We call it Nightfall.”

  “Nightfall. Good… now we’re getting somewhere.”

  “I’m guessing you guys are somehow immune to this… Nightfall?” Dunleavy asked from the couch.

  “Yes. The serum protects us.”

  “What does the virus do?” Caleb asked.

  “It… well…” Jane stammered, unable to compose herself.

  “Jane… you need to tell us,” Darcy implored, “You must help us.”

  “Dr Saunders did most of the work. Helen and I… well… we just worked on the serum. While we did that, he sent us samples. We made sure the serum worked… we made sure it protected us from the virus. Once we were certain of it, then we began Phase Two.”

  “Phase Two?” Darcy asked.

  William looked at Jane, anger intensifying in his eyes, “Don’t you dare!” he said, obviously still smarting from Caleb’s blow.

  Jane looked at her superior, and turned back to Caleb. It became clear she had chosen her course.

  “Phase Two was the time we had been waiting for. All the preparation we had done... the recruitment, the research... it all lead to what is happening now.”

  Caleb urged her to continue.

  “We’re in Phase Two as we speak - it’s the time when all of us are getting the serum.”

  “All of us? How many of you are there?” asked Caleb.

  “I was not privy to the exact details, but we have been recruiting others into our ranks for years. The Haven base, while important, was quite small... only about a hundred or so of us. It was mainly the place where we protected the Source. It also served as a research base – a place where we could work on and improve our technology. I’d been there for so long working on the serum and its delivery method. So long that I’m not really sure how many of us there are.”

  “So you didn’t know how much serum to create? I find that hard to believe.”

  “We didn’t create the serum for everybody. Like I said, we’ve been working on it for a long time. We perfected the delivery method a while ago... but it came with risks – primarily that it didn’t protect us from the virus. Once it had, we sent the serum, and instructions on its synthesisation to the other colonies. From there, they are able to recreate it from their own Source batches. It was brilliant actually. It was a moment we have been waiting a long time for.”

  Caleb looked at Darcy, alarmed at what he was hearing. If the Haven base was indeed one of the smallest, the other colonies may be huge by comparison.

  “So, if you had to guess, how many Colonials are there?”

  “If I had to guess, there’d be at least a million.”

  “Why do you say a million?”

  “I’ve only visited another two of the bases. One in America and the other in Northern Africa. They each had about a hundred thousand.”

  “Two of the other colonies? How many are there?” asked Darcy.

  “I think there are fifteen...”

  The scale of their opposition was becoming apparent.

  Caleb was worried. He had no idea how they would combat such a threat.

  “Jesus Christ.” exclaimed Dunleavy, saying out loud what Caleb was thinking.

  Caleb turned to face Darcy and Dunleavy. When his back was turned, he heard a commotion behind him. Caleb spun around, alert.

  But the damage was already done.

  In the time Caleb was questioning Jane, William had managed to loosen the cable ties from behind his back. As Caleb turned his back, William had leapt towards Jane, and tackled her to the ground. He spun her around, and held her from behind.

  Caleb tried to stop him, but he was too late.

  With one quick movement, William wrenched the nurse’s neck, and a loud snap filled the room. The nurse slumped to the floor, the life seemingly vanishing from her body.

  “Caleb sprung towards William, and became entwined with him on the floor. The two wrestled briefly, before William spoke.

  “You can get off me...” the Englishman said, “my work has been done.”

  Caleb, feeling the other man give up, used the advantage he had and spun William around. He had him in the same pose he had used to end Jane’s life, arm around his neck and on his knees.

  Such was the anger Caleb felt, it took all his will power to stop him from causing the same damage that had been inflicted upon Jane.

  But stop he did.

  He had the upper hand, and with William no longer fighting back, Caleb rested in a controlled hold.

  As he rested, Casey and Murphy sprung from the hallway. Casey had his weapon drawn.

  The Sergeant surveyed the room, and saw Jane’s lifeless body on the ground. He also saw the broken cable-ties on the ground. He winced.

  “Don’t worry Casey...” Caleb said, “They looked tight enough to me.”

  Casey looked forlorn. It was not a usual occurrence for him to let down the team.

  Caleb rose from his knees and motioned for Casey to approach. Casey again reached into his pocket and pulled out some more cable-ties.

  “Please!!!” William said with derision, “I can get out of those ones too.”

  Caleb remembered how well trained William was, so he acquiesced, “Don’t worry about them Sergeant.” He said, referring to the ties.

  Caleb released William once Casey had replaced the ties and raised his weapon.

  “You just keep your weapon on him. If he so much as flinches, shoot him.”

  “Yes sir.” replied Casey.

  With Casey’s weapon now on William, Caleb took a few steps away from the Englishman.

  “Now... I guess you’ll have to be the one we get our information from.” Caleb said in a forceful tone.

  William smirked, his confidence exuding from his body.

  “You’ll never get anything from me... I’m not weak like her.”

  Caleb feared he was right. William had shown himself to be a strong adversary. Not only had he risen through the ranks of the Colonials, but he had also shot Caleb in Haven – a wound that would have killed him in normal circumstances.

  As Caleb was about to respond, Dunleavy spoke up.

  “I’ll take it from here Jackson.”

  Chapter Twelve

  William seemed to tense up a little. He felt he had the measure of the Marine Captain, but he was unsure of Dunleavy. The former Chief-of-Staff for President Hawkins was also formerly from the CIA.

  And not just a regular agent.

  Dunleavy had progressed to the upper echelons of power both within the agency and with other various power-players throughout the intelligence world. This was especially impressive considering the influence the Colonials had had within the clandestine underbelly of intelligence networks.

  They had operatives in organisations in the United Sta
tes and various countries throughout the world.

  This was a great asset, and it was something that James had insisted happen. While Cook and the Colonials were content to let the world develop on its own, it was imperative to their group that they be aware of each step that nations took, both in the public eye and away from it.

  William served as a conduit for the information to pass from the outside world to Cook, and further to the other members of the Colonials hierarchy.

  With this information, he knew more about Dunleavy than he imagined Caleb and the others knew.

  He knew Dunleavy was a dangerous man, and his reputation for unpleasantness was unsettling.

  Williams’s nervousness became apparent, and Caleb saw the evident chink in the prisoners armour.

  Caleb turned to Dunleavy, “Do what you need to do.”

  Dunleavy smiled. It was the kind of smile normally seen on a child about to get an ice-cream, as though what he was about to do would bring him immense pleasure.

  Caleb turned to Darcy and said, “You may want to leave the room for this.”

  He didn’t really want Darcy to leave, but he felt just saying the words may cause William more fear – an important part of interrogation.

  To his surprise, Darcy sat fast in her seat.

  “No... I think I’ll stay.”

  “Darcy, you really shouldn’t.” Dunleavy said, “It’s about to become really unpleasant.

  Darcy had sat through the preceding conversation. With each revelation, she felt an emotion she was not expecting - anger.

  Anger towards the two people that had been kneeling before them.

  Anger towards the Colonials.

  She surprised herself. Darcy had always considered herself a compassionate person, able to see and hope for the best in people.

  But not today.

  Not in that room.

  In that room, and in that situation, she wanted to see them suffer.

  Suffer as the people in Seattle and Italy had suffered.

  “I’ll stay right here. I want to see the look on this bastards face.”

  “Very well.’ Dunleavy said.

  Caleb nodded towards Darcy. Not out of approval, but out of a realisation that the past day or so had changed her.