“Jack, you’ve had us all in bed more ways that we can count. I’d say we trust you,” Silk answered, spokeswoman for the moment. Her smile was radiant.
My eyes snapped up. She had my attention. “Fair enough,” I said, fighting the urge to blush. It was good to know some things still instilled a sense of shame, like the fact that I was one lucky bastard. “In the words of every terrible dancer, give me some room.”
“You want a running start? Just asking.” Mira said. She looked doubtful and more than a little nervous.
“I’m doing just that.” I cinched my pack tight, line coiled on my shoulder. After a quick survey of the other side, I spotted a clear area next to my target, a log buried several feet deep. The top two meters were exposed and angled away, and from my vantage point, the wood looked solid. “Let’s see what this body can do.”
Since there was no need for ceremony and time was of the essence, I trotted out, away form the gorge, for forty meters. My instincts told me that would yield maximum acceleration, and my body confirmed it with a low thrum in my blood. “Talking back now, eh?” I asked my ‘bots but got no answer other than a general sense of readiness. Exploding into motion, my boots churned the ground as I leapt forward faster than any human sprinter.
And most animals, given the blurred ground.
In seconds I was launching myself in the air, the chasm a roaring brown stripe below me as the wind caught my hair and I reached forward with my feet. The question was not whether I could clear the distance. The question was how hard would I hit, because I was more than three meters in the air and still accelerating as I landed on the rain-soaked ground.
I hammered into the soil with a gelatinous thud, flexing deep into my knees as I slid into the mud, only to rise sputtering but whole. Lifting my goggles, I gave a thumbs up, now separated from my team with a torrent, a chasm, and the knowledge that I was no longer just a man. I was something else, and that meant my solution to this problem wasn’t limited by Jack Bowman from my life before.
“Hammer, meet nails.” I smiled, uncoiling the line and tying it around the remains of the ancient tree. It was solid, as expected, so I lashed the rope tight and made a motion indicating the line was coming over.
“You expect me to jump?” Chloe asked, her eyes round with fear. Mira and Silk looked at me with equal suspicion, despite having watched me clear a gap twice what a normal human could traverse.
“Nope. I expect you to fly.” When she wrinkled her face at my answer, I explained, “Tie it around your waist. Run sideways and jump toward the middle. I’ll swing you over.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Chloe asked.
“A little bit, but all in all, I’d say I’m handling the changes of my new life rather well.” I turned to Silk and lifted my hands. “Do you trust me?” I repeated.
I watched her decide. With a terse nod, she took the line from Chloe and began tying it in a double loop. “If you bruise my knees on that canyon wall, I won’t be able to use them for some time.” She winked through her fear, and despite the moment I had to laugh. She was a rare woman.
“Message received.” I braced my feet as she took three steps back, pointing herself away before taking one last look at me, eyes set but nervous. “I have you.”
Her nod was small, her leap, impressive. She ran, jumped, and swung out into clear air while the double loop cinched around her ribs, forcing me to dial back my initial pull as I levered myself against the force and spun her like an Olympian throwing the hammer. When she reached the top of her arc, her feet were a meter over the ground on my side, and I relaxed the bulging muscles in my shoulders to let her land feet first with an impact somewhere between hard and soft.
“I’ll be damned. I’m alive,” she said, releasing the rope.
“Of course you are. You didn’t seriously think—” I began, but she silenced me with a kiss.
Silk turned to shout back across the torrent. “It’s okay, girls. He can do it, and it’s a hell of a ride. Tie off and let’s get moving.” She was grinning as the adrenaline continued to fire in her own blood.
“There it is,” Chloe said. “Has to be.”
Rather than pause, I grunted, kicking forward with my weapon at the ready. “Now that’s just fucking clever.”
“Why?” Silk asked, breathing heavy. The towers grew closer, hidden partially by a cacti and scrub trees.
“Because that isn’t a power plant. It’s a granary, for farming. No wonder this place kept its secrets. Everything was in plain sight,” I said as the silos rose above us, rust and all. They matched the scrub trees so well, they were little more than hulking shadows in the tangle of wild growth, tucked in a notch between two ridges. “Brilliant. Never would have thought this was the edge of technology, but here we are.”
“Go slow, or go hard?” Mira asked, her voice low.
“Neither. We go steady. Rowan isn’t here,” I said.
“How do you know?” Mira asked.
“Because they would have shot one of us by now,” I said with a grin. “Relax. There’s no way they got around us, and we had the advantage of a straight-line road. We need to find a way in and start making preparations.”
My wish was granted immediately. For all the subtle stealth of the plant, the security was non-existent for someone from my time. We made our way into a steel alcove, the metal scarred and pitted with age, but holding on with a tenacity brought about from dense coating on the prefab sheets. The door was inset, locked from inside, and a single panel designed to slide inward, most likely bolstered by technology that would have died long ago.
Unless there was still active power based on the reactors. I erred to the side of caution and motioned everyone away, then leaned a shoulder into the door, pushing in and over with a single, hard jerk. The door didn’t move, but I wasn’t killed by some passive security measure so I considered it a win.
“Okay, plan B. Let’s loop the ground level and look for another way in. There has to be something, even if it’s ventilation or drainage,” I said with a note of urgency.
Mira was looking back thoughtfully at the ground we had covered, one hand pulling at her chin. “Chloe, how many patrols did you say Rowan had?”
“Maybe three. I don’t think he was honest about anything, so there could be as many as five. At his heart, he’s a coward, despite being casually vicious when it suits him. I think he’ll wait for them to rally before he sets out, but he has another problem,” Chloe said.
“Assuming they survived the storm?” I asked.
Chloe nodded. “And the gorge. He doesn’t know about it, and he won’t be able to get over it until the water drops lower. It’s a death trap right now, and it will be for at least two days, maybe three. He’s got a lot of problems, but we do too.”
I processed that, running timelines and scenarios that all ended in uncertainty. There were four of us, and up to twenty of them when they finally arrived. We didn’t have time to travel over sodden, storm-wrecked desert, grab reinforcements, and make it back in time to secure a facility that I hadn’t even found a way into. Despite my abilities and some element of surprise, the odds were grim, and I knew it.
“We can’t do anything until we find a way in and secure the building. Let’s say three days, tops, before Rowan’s people can get here. That means we might end up fighting dirty,” I said.
“Only way to fight,” Mira agreed.
Chloe gave a sharp nod. There was no daylight between their outlook on combat.
“Alright. Let’s circle and find a way in. If we have to, we make a door. I’m tired of fucking around,” I said. We began moving clockwise through the undergrowth, staying close to the soaring components of the building, and it was a full hour before Chloe put a hand on my arm, pointing not at the metallic surface of the silos, but to the ground nearby.
“What’s that?” Chloe asked.
We surrounded the boulder, its surface a uniform gray with minor pitting but no cracks. I rapped it
with my knuckles, smiling at the hollow sound. “I don’t think it’s a random boulder. Good eye.”
“Too regular,” Mira said, running her hands over the surface until she stopped, picking at a ridge that was invisible from any angle except directly above. “Push?”
“Not yet,” I cautioned. “Weapons up. Silk, do the honors?”
She said nothing, sidling up to the camouflaged entrance and placing both hands flat upon the broad, clear area that now stood out in my eyes. The difference in coloration was subtle, but present. A perfect square.
She lifted a brow. “Just push?”
“Just push,” I said.
She did. For a moment, nothing happened, then there was a low whine, somewhere within the rock itself. The metallic echo faded into an unseen distance, and with agonizing slowness, the panel recessed the width of my hand before grinding to a halt.
Beyond, there was only pitch black and the stagnant air of a tomb. “Not too close. I don’t want anyone passing out from gases,” I said.
“It’s on some kind of track,” Silk said after peering closely at the door. She exhaled and took a deep breath of humid air, an expression of thanks on her face. “Foul. Like dead things and mold.”
“As long as it isn’t filled with water, I like our chances. Those reactors are tough. Even if we can get one of them to partially work, it’ll lift us out of the dark ages,” I said. “Stand back. I’m going to force the door.”
I unshouldered my pack and weapons, leaning into the edge of the door with everything I had. Muscles straining, the door began to move with a howl of grinding metal that would wake the dead. After ten seconds of gradual progress, something snapped in the track, and the door slammed aside with a crash, vibrating to a stop only after I put both hands flat against it. The edge was warm from friction, but the door was open, if not permanently broken.
“I’m going to lean in and breath, to see if it’s tolerable. If I pitch forward, drag me out if you don’t mind?” I said.
“If you die, can I have your stuff?” Chloe asked, a wicked grin on her face.
“Hey. Get in line,” Mira said, but she was smiling too. So was Silk.
I rolled my eyes at their joy of my impending doom, earning a pat on the head from Silk.
“I’ll drag you clear. Not done with you yet,” Silk said.
“Thank you,” I replied with as much dignity as I could muster, given the stench emanating from the space before me. Leaning in, I drew in a foul breath, let it out, and repeated the process three more times. When I felt no ill effects, I pulled back, a sour look on my face. “Smells like Satan’s taint, but you can breathe it.”
Who is Satan?” Silk asked.
“He was—well, it’s complicated.” I guess Satan had gone away during my nap, only to be replaced by things like Taksa and hogs the size of a car.
“What’s a taint?” Chloe asked, her eyes round with curiosity.
“It’s—well. Let’s talk about it later. How about if I just say it smells like death and leave it at that?” I asked, hoping to avoid any discussion of demonic body parts.
“Okay. But you have to tell us later,” Mira said, earning two sounds of agreement from Silk and Chloe.
I raised my hand and nodded, then began looking around the brush for torch material. “We’re going to need a lot of torches in there, and that causes a problem. Oxygen. We can’t foul the air or set anything on fire, because I have no idea if we can get any circulation in there.”
“I have a different idea,” Silk said.
“Other than torches?” I asked her. Maybe she knew something of the apocalyptic world that I didn’t.
“We could do this,” she said, reaching around me and flipping a switch. Lights flared into existence down a dripping entryway that turned left at a set of metallic stairs.
“I’ll be damned,” I said. “They work.” I revised our chances of success. If the lights were running after two millennia, then there was a working power source. In the distance, a low hum began to emanate from the walls, and I felt the push of air against my back. “Ventilation fans. They’re pulling air in.”
“So no—tainted smell?” Chloe asked.
“Well, eventually. For now, it will be rough going,” I said, fighting to hide my smile. “Especially if you don’t like bugs.” An armada of cave crickets clung to the walls, their long antennae wiggling at the influx of outside air and new sensations. They didn’t appear to be fans of light, either.
“I don’t like them on the walls, but they’re okay fried,” Mira said, without a trace of humor.
“Let’s leave them there for now. We can always play bug farmer later, if food gets tight,” I said, stepping inside the doorway with care. The floor was damp but stable. The metal stairs appeared to be another story altogether. “I’ll take lead. Mira in back. Everyone, weapons out but pointed down. I don’t know what kind of footing we’ll be dealing with.”
“Look at that,” Silk said, gesturing toward a sign pinned to the wall. It was the size of a postcard and unreadable from the accumulated grime and haze of mold.
I swiped my hand over it to clear the growth, revealing a fire escape map. “Perfect.” I worked the sign loose with a snap, taking in the details radiating out from a small star. “You are here.”
“We are, right?” Silk said. “Four levels and two wings? This is a lot bigger than it looks.”
“Unless I’m way off, this is another black site. Probably part of whatever that Cache key fits,” I said, patting my pocket to feel the outline of the salvaged relic. “It’s close to a fortress, at least in design.”
“Easy to defend when Rowan shows up. He can’t get through the ground. Has to come through one of the doors. I make two, according to the sign,” Silk said.
She was right. We might be sitting on a huge facility, but the way in was limited, making our job the slightest bit easier.
“We go down the main stairs, just past this entrance. That corridor is the main access for everything. I wouldn’t trust the elevators, not after what we just saw with that door,” I said.
“Stairs only,” Silk agreed. “Left or right when we get down there?”
“Left. Larger rooms. We want storage first, maybe labs. When we secure the reactors, then we come back up and start building static defenses. I want them to fight their way in while we fall back to secure positions. We’ll bleed them white, until—” I jabbed my finger at a door just beyond the stairway landing. “We ambush from here, with this back-channel hallway. Get whoever is left in crossing fire and cut them down.”
“That makes their numbers a lot less impressive,” Silk said.
“If any of them even get in. I can snipe from the top of a tower,” Mira offered.
“I can’t risk you out there. If they split us, you’re dead.” She bridled, but I put a hand on her shoulder. “You can snipe from right here,” I said, marking a wide room that looked like a control center. It had clear views of the left hallway, and would be a natural advantage for a shooter like Mira.
“Okay. Inside it is, then.” Mira didn’t like being cooped up when she could shoot long range, but the gamble was too great. We would fight together or not at all.
We picked our way down the slick metal steps, feet ringing in unison before we made it to the bottom. The lights were present, but weak, a wan yellow glow casting sick shadows throughout the wide passage, walls festooned with mold and deposits of driftwood piled at odd intervals.
“Oh, shit. This changes things,” I said, putting up a hand to stop everyone before I led us into a trap.
“Are those bones?” Silk asked.
“Human. And animal,” Mira answered, lifting a knuckle bone, then dropping it before wiping her hand in absent disgust.
“By a skull count, I’d say dozens of people, if not more. Hundreds, maybe, and twice that in animals,” I said. “Okay, everyone get back up the stairs, quietly. We need another look outside before we come down here again.”
&nb
sp; In minutes we were gulping clean air as the adrenaline cooked off, Mira and Silk nervously pointing their guns at the yawning doorway. I left the lights on. If there was anything down there, it would already know something was up. There was no sense risking the lights not coming back on, given how temperamental ancient devices could be.
“Once more around the perimeter, and we need to go slow, look hard, and keep your guns hot,” I said.
Our next lap through the brush was far different than the first. Now Mira and Chloe sent their skills into overdrive, stalking through the greenery with suspicious steps that were a third of the speed from before.
“Got it,” Mira said after a half hour of hot, close work.
We were on the opposite side of the door, in a cluster of brush so thick the sun was dim. Water trickled out of the slope, and the hum of insects filled the air around us. We were in a place of permanent shadow and, because of that, had missed the obvious trail.
“Game trail,” Chloe said. “Follow it to the source?”
“I’ll lead.” I proceeded deeper into the gloom with steady steps, placing my feet in areas where there was no debris to give away our position. The mosquitos were thick as fog, their incessant whine a companion more irritating than the heat and damp. An odor of rot rose in my nostrils, and after twenty meters, I saw our target.
“Air vent, and well hidden,” Chloe said.
The heavy grate was gone, replaced with a hanging tangle of vines that draped over and around the dim square of the shaft. Around it, the ground was beaten to mud by something using the shaft as an access point.
“Here’s your hunter,” Mira said, touching a footprint that fell outside the soggy path. Starkly defined in the dirt, it was recent and only partially degraded, protected by the canopy of brush. “It’s . . . I mean, I know the track, but . . .”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s way too big. Like twenty times too big for the animal,” Mira said, touching the ground with fear and revulsion.
Future Reborn Box Set Page 31
