Termination

by J C Ryan

  “That’s going to cause a lot of damage in coastal areas.”

  “Yes, sir, absolutely.”

  A knock sounded on the door, and Salome entered. After inviting her to join them, Daniel filled her in on the situation with added comments from Ross.

  “I need you to mobilize FEMA immediately to begin the evacuations. Work with other departments to open shelters and supply other needs.”

  “I’m on it,” Salome replied. “Anything else?”

  “I think that’s enough for now. Let’s hope we’re over-reacting. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

  CHAPTER 55

  Re'an headquarters Tunguska, Russia

  EVERYONE IN THE helicopter cringed when Dekka hollered as Naamin adjusted his dislocated shoulder. Dekka wasn’t sure which hurt worse, dislocating it in the first place or having it put back. He was lucky it wasn’t broken.

  Telestra, assisting Naamin, cleaned the blood from his face and head.

  “You guys cut that awfully close,” Rauel said from the cockpit. “I didn’t think you were going to make it.”

  “Telestra should have left me behind,” Dekka said. “But she is stubborn – and I’m eternally grateful for that.”

  Telestra just frowned at him in mock anger.

  For several minutes, they all watched the glow of the massive inferno in silence, thankful to be alive, grieving for those few friends left behind.

  It had taken years for the seven of them to discover their mutual independence from Viktor. Dekka and Telestra had screened the others, using carefully constructed conversations and observation, but found only the five that accompanied them to be trustworthy.

  Rauel broke the silence. “Are you sure the Americans will meet us as planned?”

  “Yes. Deszik says they can be trusted. He has confirmed that the submarine will meet us after dark at the coordinates I provided to him, on the shoreline of Puyshariya Bay,” Telestra said.

  “What happens after we meet this submarine?”

  The rest of the group sat up listening carefully. They had not been privy to the details of the entire escape plan; they only knew they were going to America to join their colleagues at the canyon site.

  “We will be on the submarine for about a day, traveling toward America. A ship will meet us, and we will transfer to it for the remainder of the trip. It will take us a day or so to reach Washington where some people will meet us and help us get to the canyon site where Deszik and the others are.”

  “And then what?” Naamin asked as he applied the portable mendar to Dekka’s shoulder.

  Dekka sighed with relief as the healing stimulator began to restore the injured muscles and tendons. He knew it would only be a matter of hours, maybe a day, and his shoulder would be as good as new.

  “Then we begin a new life where we can be who we truly are,” Telestra responded and smiled at Dekka.

  * * *

  Eighth Cycle Site, Grand Canyon, USA

  RAJ’S FINGERS HAD been flying ceaselessly over the keyboard for hours on end.

  He hadn’t seen his bed in more than two days. He’d been taking twenty-minute powernaps every four hours, sleeping on his arms in front of the computer. But the effectiveness of those had waned. Then about three hours ago, he made the breakthrough he’d been working on for so long; he finally managed to break into the main chip control computer at the Tunguska site. His adrenaline had spiked, and it blew new life and energy into him. Within another two hours, he was able to start copying the entire program including its data over to the canyon site’s computers.

  The copying was about sixty percent done when he got the news that Deszik’s mother and her colleagues had activated the routine to destroy the Tunguska facility. He had no idea how much time he had, and he had no time to stop and ask. He just kept on working and mumbling inaudibly to himself, “Not now, not now. Just a few more hours. Don’t blow it up yet. I’m almost there.”

  At the eighty percent mark, the sweat of anxiety was pearling on his forehead and eyebrows. “Go, go, go. Please, please don’t stop now.”

  Then, just as the download indicator displayed ninety-one percent, the counter stopped, and a message appeared ‘Resume Connection’. Raj’s scream of frustration, “Noooooo!” echoed through the lab and hallways.

  When Roy entered Raj’s computer lab, he found him shaking with rage and disappointment; his hands were locked behind his head and tears of utter frustration were streaming down his face.

  Roy took one look at the screen, saw the message, and knew what had caused Raj’s outburst. He grabbed him by the shoulders and said, “Hey buddy, you almost – almost made it. Let’s check what you’ve downloaded, maybe you’ve got enough of it to get the program up and running and get into those chips.”

  Raj shook his head and dropped his head onto his arms.

  Roy stood next to him in silence for a few minutes before he said, “Raj, snap out of it, let’s see what you’ve got. It’s not over yet.”

  Raj raised his head from the desk, sat up, looked at Roy, and said, “Okay.”

  For the next hour or more, the two of them tried every hack and technical trick they knew to get the program up and running, but without success. Finally, they agreed they were wasting valuable time; they had to move on to another task.

  They went to the kitchen and made themselves coffee, and while they stood there sipping it, discussed what was next.

  “With the control computers gone, I’d suggest you get hold of Deszik, Robert, JR, Dennis, et cetera and ‘transfer’ those weapons over to Deszik and start working on bypassing their authentication system."

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Raj said. “What are you working on?”

  “It’s still too early to say if it would work, but I’m experimenting with nanobots to see if I can perhaps program them to attack the soldiers, find their chips, and destroy them, or at least make them malfunction.”

  “That would be a neat solution. I’m off to get Deszik and the rest. Let me know if I can help with anything.”

  Roy nodded. “And the same for you.”

  For several hours the people at the canyon sat and watched in mesmerized shock at the news reports coming in and the scenes of destruction showing on the monitors.

  Entire coastal towns had been swept away by the one-hundred- twenty-five-foot wave. Nearby towns further inland were flooded; rivers that emptied into the ocean swelled with the high tide, flooding homes, businesses, even entire towns along their banks.

  Alaska’s inside passage islands had become isolated mountain tops.

  Trees, cars, airplanes, boats, bodies of people and animals floated in the water. Never in known history had the west coast seen such destruction, such loss of life. Nearly a mile-wide stretch of the entire coastline lay underwater.

  “All those people,” Rebecca whispered. “They didn’t make it out, make it to safety.”

  “No,” JR responded softly, wrapping his arms around her. “There wasn’t enough time.”

  They watched as reporters in helicopters followed rescue boats trolling slowly through neighborhoods, where children once played. People huddled in blankets at FEMA shelters described harrowing rescues and chilling experiences.

  In between reports, lists of survivors and their locations were broadcast in an attempt to reunite separated families or at least ease people’s minds about their missing loved ones.

  For some, the reports brought good news. For others, each report lacking the name they were looking for brought an ever downward-spiraling mood as their hopes were dashed again and again.

  Many in the shelters sat, blankets hanging unnoticed from their shoulders, simply holding cups of hot coffee, unaware of their surroundings. They neither drank nor spoke; they merely stared into empty space in disbelief, eyes unfocused and absent of blinking. So frozen were they that even their breathing was hard to detect; it was as if they were dead.

  When she could stand it no more, Rebecca buried her face in
JR’s shoulder and he held her tight, letting her sob out her grief. While he held her, he continued to watch the reports coming in. His eyes drifted to the tickertape along the bottom of the screen. FEMA shelters were filling up fast, and directions to alternate sites were being broadcast. His eyes flickered back to the scenes of destruction and rescue attempts to see a couple and two small boys on a mountain top surrounded by water.

  At least they will be rescued.

  CHAPTER 56

  Washington DC

  Leaning back in his office chair, Daniel closed his eyes and sighed deeply. He had never in his life sighed as often as he had since he became president. What made it worse was the fact that amid the Re’an crisis, one of the most challenging he had to deal with in the existence of the Rossler Foundation, he was on his own; separated from the rest of the Rosslerites, who always functioned at their best when they were together to tackle a problem. Salome was the only one close by who he could talk to.

  The Tunguska site is gone.

  Viktor is gone, and all of his Re’an with him, I hope.

  That should have been the end of it, but no such luck, the curse of the Eighth Cycle is still haunting us.

  Stretching each muscle-group, he attempted to release some of the tension in his body.

  Sarah had long been asleep when he crawled into bed beside her the night before, and she was still sleeping when he rose two hours later.

  He opened his eyes just as Salome entered the office with a tray covered with a tea towel. “I hope you brought coffee and donuts.”

  Smiling, she placed the tray in front of him and removed the cloth. “Your favorite!”

  “Have a seat on the couch – I’ll join you over there – it’s too early to be official,” he said moving from behind his desk.

  Seated on the couch across from her, she held out a cup of coffee and placed a donut on a napkin in front of him.

  “You look tired and troubled Daniel.”

  He nodded. “Right on both counts. I feel like I’ve been on the merry-go-round from hell riding alongside the devil himself.”

  “I understand that. But if it’s any conciliation, your address last night is getting favorable ratings.

  “The people are pleased with your foresight to act immediately and the measures you are taking to aid and support the west coast states. They like that you didn’t drag your feet and immediately sounded the alarm; a lot of people were saved because you didn’t hesitate and wait for more information. You’re being seen as a man of action, and they like it.”

  “Well, it’s good to hear that we’ve acted in a timely manner,” he said, then took a sip of his coffee and picked up the chocolate donut from the napkin. “I’m almost afraid to ask. What’s the current death toll?”

  Somberly Salome replied, “There are well over a thousand confirmed deaths, thousands are still missing. Officials are hoping the number will not reach the ten-thousand mark.”

  Hanging his head, Daniel whispered, “So many people… so many lives. How many more lives will the cursed Eighth Cycle claim before it’s over? They were supposed to have disappeared more than seventy-thousand years ago, but it seems as if they just refuse to give up. First John Brideaux reactivating The Beast, then this madman Viktor wanted to control the world, as if we haven’t had enough of those in the Eleventh Cycle already. And now we still have seven-hundred and fifty cyborgs on the loose with orders to wipe us out.”

  The silence grew heavy between them before Salome spoke softly. “The Tunguska scientists had no way of knowing that explosion would cause a massive submarine landslide. They didn’t do this on purpose.”

  “I know,” Daniel sighed. “I just wish it hadn’t happened, that’s all.”

  “Well, on a slightly happier note, you will be glad to know that the seven L’gundo scientists made it to the rendezvous with the Itinerant as planned and are on their way to rendezvous with the Mystic Sea.

  “Since Raj couldn’t get that control program copied over, I’ve been thinking… those L’gundo scientists know the Re’an technology inside out. I’m hoping that when they get to the canyon site, they can work with the team to find a way to overcome Viktor’s cyborgs.”

  “I certainly hope so, Salome. We are now stuck with only one option since Tunguska has been destroyed; Tectus has to take these terrorists out, and they don’t have much of a chance to succeed. Eighth Cycle laser weapons or not.

  “And we can’t send our police or military against them, they’d be decimated.”

  “Yes, that’s true, and all the more reason to get the seven L’gundo scientists to the canyon site as quickly as possible. Maybe we should airlift them?”

  “That’s a good idea,” Daniel looked at his watch. “Ross Lewis will be here in about fifteen minutes, and we’ll be busy for a while. Could you make arrangements to get those L’gundo scientists airlifted to the canyon?”

  “No problem, I’ll take care of it.”

  Daniel took a few more sips and another bite of the donut, sat back, and said, “Salome, one of my dilemmas is that we, no, not we, I, have been keeping all of this from my cabinet, the National Security Council, and the American people in the hope that we'll find a solution and stop the Re’an before they can even begin.

  “Please understand, I am not worried about losing my job. I'm worried about the pandemonium that will follow, if we're forced to reveal it all. Can you even begin to imagine the disruption this would cause if people were to learn about all of this? For instance, reanimation of the dead? Technology and weapons that we can’t even begin to comprehend.

  “For starters, people's religious beliefs will be destroyed, and I am too scared to even think about the damage that would do to our social structures and orderly lives. And that is if we win this war. I just can't bring myself to imagine what life under these maniacs would be like if we lose. We might even miss the good old days when John Brideaux was the ruler.”

  “Those are spine chilling thoughts, Daniel; some of them had crossed my mind as well.”

  Daniel sighed again. “Humanly speaking, there is only one more card we have left up our sleeves.”

  “And that is?”

  “That genius husband of yours.”

  Salome nodded slowly as she stared at Daniel. “I haven't spoken to him in days. The last time I saw him was on the conference call after the Tectus meeting, when he left the room without saying what he was up to. I can contact him and get an update if you want to.”

  “No, don’t disturb him. You know better than I do, we need to let him be; he will show his face when he's ready.”

  “I can only pray to God to lead him to the answer.”

  Daniel nodded. “As will I, and I will ask all of the Rosslerites to do the same.”

  A knock on the door announced the arrival of Ross Lewis, and they agreed to continue their discussion later.

  Salome asked to be excused and left. Daniel and Lewis spent the next several hours going over FEMA’s progress and needs in the effort to bring relief and support to the disaster areas.

  Throughout the meeting, Daniel was burning to leave it all in the hands of Lewis so that he could spend his time on helping find a solution to the looming war with the Re'an. But there was no way out of it. He had to sit through it and pretend there was nothing more important than the tsunami disaster relief effort, although the disaster that the Re’an was about to release on the country and the world would make the tsunami disaster pale in comparison.

  CHAPTER 57

  TOSSING AND TURNING, Robert muttered in his sleep as his dream escalated and his mumbling turned into a scream, which woke him.

  What the hell?

  Turning over he tried to return to sleep, but images from the strange dream immediately haunted him again.

  A rainforest, a volcano, an honored choice; it didn’t make sense.

  In frustration, he got up and headed for the kitchen and a snack.

  He found Siasha and Rebecca sitting at a table
talking quietly over cups of hot tea.

  Siasha. Why do I keep running into her? At least she’s with Rebecca; I don’t have to talk to her.

  “Robert! Come join us insomniacs,” Rebecca called.

  Wincing inside, Robert replied, “Be right there.” He couldn’t refuse Rebecca’s invitation without appearing rude. “Let me grab some coffee.”

  The girls continued to talk quietly until he joined them.

  “So, you two can’t sleep either, huh?” he said sitting down at the end of the table.

  “No,” Rebecca replied. “The tsunami and the terrible damage it’s causing is making us …”

  “…anxious,” Siasha finished for her.

  “I can understand; I’ve been having crazy dreams, disturbing dreams.”

  “They are reporting minor activity in some of the volcanos in the Aleutian chain. Do you think those volcanos will erupt?” Rebecca asked.

  “It’s difficult to say at this point,” Robert replied. “Predicting volcanic eruptions is a very inaccurate science at this point. We can monitor them and know that changes are taking place but predicting if and when a volcano will erupt is still just a guess.”

  “If they do erupt, will they create more tsunamis?”

  Robert smiled slightly.

  “What’s funny?” Rebecca asked.

  “Actually, ‘tsunami” is both singular and plural, but the English language has added ‘tsunamis’; it grates on those of us who are old school geologists.”

  Rebecca rolled her eyes and smiled. “Just answer the question, ‘professor’.”

  “It would depend on the strength and type of eruption and whether or not there is an accompanying sub-sea displacement, along with other things; but yes, in some circumstances, they could create additional tsunami.”

  “How likely is that to happen?”

  “It’s impossible to tell.”