‘And you’re sure he did what you asked?’ Steiner said, now more concerned that this information might not be just in the hands of Samson.
‘I can be very persuasive,’ Samson replied ominously.
Of that Steiner had no doubt, and it was perhaps just as well in this instance, he concluded. ‘And there are no copies?’ he said, pressing the SFSD commander.
Samson smiled at Steiner again; most likely happy to have me just where he wants me, Steiner presumed with bitter remorse. He’d thought the data file he’d sent to Richard Goodwin had enough encryption to be secure; he was wrong. At least only a partial section had been retrievable, the full truth still eluded the Colonel, but Steiner knew Samson wanted the whole shebang and wouldn’t relent until he had it.
‘I wonder what would happen if your precious followers found out that six more asteroids are headed our way?’ Samson said, his calm voice belying the vicious nature of the remark. ‘Would they remain loyal to you or would they string you up from the rafters?’
‘Colonel, the information you hold is very dangerous; if there are any copies they need to be destroyed.’
Samson laughed at him. ‘Are you pleading with me, Professor?’
Steiner wanted to curse at Samson and physically wipe that filthy smirk from his cruel, spiteful face; he knew, however, Samson could squash him like a bug and to reveal his emotions to the man would only please him further and weaken Steiner’s own precarious position. I must find out if a copy of the video has been made, he told himself.
‘If this information got out it wouldn’t just be my neck on the line,’ Steiner said after a momentary pause, attempting to tackle the colonel by another route. ‘You think your men would believe you didn’t know either? Everyone in authority would be enemy number one.’
Samson considered Steiner in return. ‘What are the impact zone coordinates for the six asteroids?’ he asked, his intensity and anger frothing back to the surface. He walked over to the dishevelled table to pick up a glass. Looking at Steiner, he crushed the thick tumbler to dust within his metal-shrouded hand; a crude yet effective threat of violence, which Steiner had no doubt was designed to intimidate him into submission. The sad fact was, he had no other hand to play than the truth; a physical beating would be extremely unpleasant, but one he could ill afford if he was to attempt to save the lives of all those entrusted to his care. Besides, Samson knew too much and further lies would be pointless and transparent; the colonel was no fool, despite his actions intimating otherwise.
‘There’s an atlas on my bookshelf,’ Steiner said, pointing.
Samson strode to the shelving, his heavy, metal-clad boots thudding dully on the carpeted floor. He selected a large, leather bound volume, the cover whispering as he withdrew it from between its fellows, then stomped back and dumped the atlas into Steiner’s lap, making him jump slightly at the force.
Opening the cover, Steiner flicked to an illustration of the world, located within twin, intersecting ovals and spread across two adjacent pages. Angling the book towards Samson, Steiner pointed, one by one, at the locations where each asteroid would touch down.
‘Wait,’ Samson said after Steiner had touched the map near the New Mexico and Colorado border. ‘That’s right on top of us.’
Steiner looked up at Samson and gave a solemn nod.
‘When will it hit?’
‘We have eight months,’ Steiner told him, expecting the man to go ballistic, but instead Samson walked to the other side of the room, deep in concentration.
Facing the wall, the colonel put a hand to his mouth and flicked his head back as though taking a pill of some kind. ‘The size, what size is it?’ Samson asked, his voice strained.
‘Half that of AG5 itself. It will decimate the continental United States; the south eastern and central states will face annihilation.’
‘What of the others in 2042?’ Samson said, still with his back to Steiner.
Steiner looked at the door, but decided it would be futile to try and run. He looked back to see Samson had turned around, his blue eyes fixed once more on his hostage.
‘Another is a little larger and will hit in northern Africa,’ Steiner said. ‘The one making landfall near the Russian Mongolian border is twice the size of AG5 and the fourth, touching down in the Pacific Ocean, is five times as big.’
‘The other two. When and where?’
‘Both will impact in 2045. The first in the southern Atlantic, the next in the Pacific; each is much larger than AG5, and the final one may well be large enough to trigger an ignition event.’
‘Which means?’ Samson said.
‘That the detonation from the resulting strike may set in motion a chain reaction that would destroy the Earth’s atmosphere.’
‘So that’s why so many bases were made,’ Samson muttered to himself. ‘Not to protect us from AG5, but from what was to follow.’
‘Now do you see why we had to keep it a secret?’ Steiner said. ‘If people had known the truth, the construction projects would have been severely limited and delayed by mass hysteria. Dissemination of the information we had was not an option; the future of our entire race was at stake, of all life on Earth, for that matter.’
Samson didn’t appear to hear Steiner as he leaned one hand against a wall, the information apparently too much even for the hardened colonel to take in.
‘Colonel, this information must not get out. Please can you tell me if there are any copies of that recording?’
‘There are no copies,’ Samson told him, finally relenting, ‘but this one,’ he held up the small data device, ‘stays with me as collateral.’
Steiner turned as the office doors burst open and armed Darklight forces swarmed inside, the black-clad security contractors shouting at Samson to kneel down and put his hands on his head.
‘Are you okay, sir?’ one of the Darklight officers asked Steiner, as Samson held his ground, his own weapons drawn.
‘I’m fine, Captain, thank you. Tell your men to stand down.’
The Darklight man looked confused. ‘Sir?’
‘The colonel is no longer a threat, he’s free to go.’
The captain nodded and barked out orders for his team to shoulder their weapons. As they did, Samson did likewise.
Pushing his way past the similarly armoured Darklight operatives, Samson paused in front of Steiner. ‘Thank you for your cooperation, Professor,’ he said, his inflection condescending, a malicious glint in his eye. ‘I’ll look forward to working with you on the ascent to the surface.’
Steiner’s eyes narrowed in suspicion and anger at the colonel’s insincerity. Samson threw an insolent salute in the direction of the Darklight captain and walked away, passing Nathan who was making his way in.
Nathan’s expression was full of concern. ‘What’s been going on? Are you okay, Professor?’
‘Do you know how that famous saying goes regarding Houston?’
Nathan appeared uncertain. ‘The Apollo thirteen reference?’
‘Yes, that one.’
‘Why, do we have a problem?’
‘Oh yes,’ Steiner said, watching through the reception’s windows as Samson disappeared from view, ‘a big one.’
Chapter Twenty
Water cascaded over Professor Steiner’s hands, miniature rivulets tracing the lines in his cracked and weathered skin. Many of his early years had been spent working on various engineering projects, and the materials and chemicals used to perfect pioneering developments in the field had taken their toll, affecting the ability of the skin on his hands to maintain its moisture. Steiner shook the droplets free over the sink and then looked at himself in the mirror.
‘I hope you know what you’re doing,’ he said to himself; his reflection failed to supply a response.
Looking down he twisted a simple golden band around a finger on his left hand. Amelia, his wife, had died in a freak accident many years ago, back when he was still a fresh-faced lecturer at Stanford University.
He still vividly remembered the day when a police officer had interrupted one of his classes. Steiner initially joked with his students, asking which of them had parked their car in the Dean’s space again. His laughter turned to confusion and then despair when he was given the news that his wife was being flown by a Lifelight helicopter to the ICU at the university’s own medical centre.
The words hadn’t made sense to him at the time, the information – illogical.
‘Amelia can’t be in Stanford,’ he assured the policeman, ‘she left the county this morning. She was driving down to Bakersfield for a conference.’ He looked at his watch. ‘She should almost be there by now.’
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ the officer replied, ‘as I said, there’s been an accident. Your wife stopped at a convenience store outside of town; a large vehicle lost control in the street and ended up smashing into the front of the building, causing the roof to collapse. Your wife was critically injured. It took some time to cut her free. She may not have long to live; she’s asking for you.’
Numb, he was led away, his trance-like state only allowing his senses to roar back to life when he caught sight of the woman he loved. Wires and machines surrounded the bed on which she lay. The emotive sound of the ventilator filled the sterile room as it helped Amelia to breathe, her chest rising and falling in time to the slow and insistent rhythmic compression of air. A heart rate monitor bleeping erratically in the background served as a relentless reminder of his wife’s tenuous hold on life. Sitting beside her, Steiner reached out and gently squeezed her hand with his own. Her face was pallid and a tube led into her nose. A large graze on one side of her face brought a tear to his eye, which he brushed away when a nurse walked in to check on her patient.
‘Can she hear me?’ he asked.
‘She drifts in and out of consciousness,’ the nurse said. ‘Whenever she wakes, she asks where you are.’
Steiner gently moved aside a lock of Amelia’s hair, which had fallen across one eye, and as he did so her eyelids flickered open. Turning her head with painful difficulty she focused on his face.
‘George,’ she said, her voice barely audible.
Her hand grasped his and he leaned in closer. ‘I’m here, my love,’ he told her, ‘I’m here.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, as ever thinking about him rather than herself.
‘What have you got to be sorry for?’
‘I don’t want to leave you, it’s too soon.’
‘You will never leave me,’ he said, his voice choking as his emotions overwhelmed him. ‘I love you.’
Her voice grew fainter. ‘Promise me, you will follow your dreams.’
‘I promise I will,’ he said as his tears came.
‘You can do great things, George,’ she whispered. ‘I believe in you—’
At those words she had lost consciousness, never to regain it. They’d turned off the life support equipment a few hours later and Steiner’s world had been changed forever. The first few years after his loss, his carefree demeanour had left him and bitterness had sought to consume his mind. His work had been his only motivator, fuelled by Amelia’s final words. Eventually he’d learnt to enjoy life once more, although he knew he’d never be able to love another woman like he did Amelia and so shied away from emotional bonds. On the odd occasion later in life when loneliness raised its ugly head, Steiner was in no position to act upon the instinct, as he was, by then, far too deeply entrenched in directing the GMRC’s Subterranean Programme.
Now, whenever Steiner needed inspiration or courage, something to light his darkest hours, the memory of Amelia, inextricably linked to the single gold band on his ring finger, gave him the strength of will he needed. Her presence, as ever, guided him in life as he knew it would in death.
The door to the washroom opened behind Steiner and a familiar face appeared to snap him out of his poignant thoughts. ‘They’re ready for you, Professor,’ Sophie said.
‘Thank you, my dear.’ He mustered a smile. ‘I’ll be right out.’
Steiner looked at himself in the mirror one last time. His usual grey GMRC uniform had been replaced by new and alien attire. A heavy climbing harness overlaid a pair of sturdy red coveralls normally reserved for Steadfast’s maintenance workers. Unlike the Special Forces commandos he was about to join, Steiner’s body was small and slightly rotund, his frame unsuited to the gear worn by the SFSD. Even the clothes he wore now had been hastily adjusted to suit. His normal footwear, comfortable GMRC issue, had also been substituted by special climbing shoes, adapted for use inside the man-made confines of USSB Steadfast.
Various ropes, krabs, cams, pulleys and clamps hung from him like the small tassels on a brightly coloured piñata; he just hoped he wouldn’t be broken open so others could see what lay inside. ‘Right then,’ he said to himself, ‘let’s get this show on the road.’
Pushing open the door, he walked out into a clearing surrounded by tall fir trees on one side and a sheer, light grey rock face on the other. Behind him stood the small outpost he’d just been inside, the building normally utilised by workers managing the underground ecosystem and bio-chamber complex in which he now found himself. The air here seemed fresher than elsewhere in the base, a pleasant by-product of the oxygenation process taking place within the forest of trees and plants that surrounded them. In the treetops a few birds could be heard whistling and chirruping to one another, unaware and uninterested in the events unfolding close by. A few hundred feet above, bolted to the chamber’s vast ceiling, the powerful, magnificent and all-encompassing sunlight generator threw down rays of light, bathing those beneath it in a warm and pleasant glow.
‘Professor,’ Nathan said, moving away from a crowd of people to meet him. ‘The team is assembled and ready to depart. As requested, the Darklight captain, Iwamoto, will be accompanying you along with nineteen of his men. With Samson’s Terra Force unit and the three communication technicians, there’ll be seventy-four of you making the ascent. Do you have everything you need? Iwamoto says he has some bulletproof clothing for you for when you reach the surface. Make sure you follow their every command. If the fighting is fierce, stay back until a safe path has been cleared.’
Steiner placed his hand on Nathan’s wrist. His friend’s face already looked stressed due to his new role as Acting Director of the base and his concern for Steiner’s safety was evident and quite touching.
‘Don’t worry about me,’ Steiner said. ‘I’m in safe hands.’
Nathan eyed Colonel Samson as he readied his men on the outer edge of the clearing. ‘That’s debatable.’
‘I was actually referring to Captain Iwamoto,’ Steiner said, following his friend’s gaze towards the man on whom so much of his plan rested.
‘The fact Samson knows about the next wave of asteroids unnerves me more than I can say,’ Nathan said as he looked back to Steiner, his brow creased and his voice drawn.
Steiner had been quick to tell Nathan about Samson’s new insight into the events that would be unfolding on the surface over the coming years. Nathan’s reaction had been that of shock and utter consternation, a feeling that Steiner well understood and shared.
‘There is little we can do about it,’ Steiner told him. ‘It appears he’s willing to keep the information to himself; we must hope he’s true to his word. The repercussions in Steadfast if such knowledge got out could be devastating, but if word spread on the surface—’ Steiner left his sentence hanging.
‘Would be an unprecedented disaster,’ Nathan finished for him. ‘I don’t understand why you didn’t have him arrested when you had the chance.’
‘Because he would have told all and sundry about the next wave of asteroids and his team wouldn’t act while their leader was imprisoned. Furthermore, despite what he says to the contrary, he may have another recording of the message I sent to Richard Goodwin. I trust Samson about as far as I can throw him.’
‘Perhaps he should be taken care of when he’s served his purpose?’
&
nbsp; ‘No,’ Steiner said. ‘I’m not Malcolm Joiner. Such a thought is beneath you, Nathan, I’m surprised at you.’
Nathan sighed. ‘I’m sorry. I’m just worried for you, for us all. The GMRC has worked so hard to ensure humanity’s continued survival. For a man such as Samson to have the slightest chance of endangering that, no matter how small that possibility may be, shouldn’t we do something about it?’
‘I’ll keep a close eye on him, you can be assured of that. Besides, Joiner’s Intelligence Division, despite its methods leaving a repugnant taste in the mouth, would be able to quash any chatter, if word did somehow begin to circulate.’
Nathan didn’t look convinced and he had to admit that Samson’s unpredictability left Steiner himself feeling nervous and exposed. The information Samson was now privy to gave him power a man such as he shouldn’t possess. As he looked in Samson’s direction again he saw that the colonel had completed his duties and was striding across the forest floor towards them.
‘This should be fun,’ Nathan murmured as Samson drew nearer.
‘Colonel,’ Steiner said to the Terra Force commander.
‘We’re ready,’ Samson answered the greeting, his customary lack of manners and respect seemingly unaltered.
‘Are you and your men prepared to engage U.S. Army personnel on the surface, Colonel?’ Steiner asked.
Samson bristled. ‘Why wouldn’t we be?’
2041 Sanctuary (Dark Descent) Page 27
