2041 Sanctuary (Dark Descent)

by Robert Storey

  ‘Hey!’ Eric moved forward.

  ‘Ead eleyh!’ The man grabbed his rifle and pointed it at Eric, who put his hands up and stepped back again.

  ‘Don’t worry, Eric.’ Jessica stood up straighter and pushed her long dark locks back behind one ear, the short red wig having been discarded back at the Stuttgart monastery. Her face stinging, Jessica stared defiantly back at her assailant, her psychological constitution preventing her from kowtowing to his intimidation. The man held her gaze and then muttered something and spat at the ground at her feet before stalking off to the rear of his truck. Prick, Jessica thought to herself, rubbing her face; the blow had brought back her headache.

  Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, the rear flap of the truck clanked down and five white-clad soldiers got out, all wearing balaclavas and sporting assault rifles. The apparent leader of this team shouted some commands in German to those around him, before marching straight up to Jessica to speak in a heavy German accent. ‘Jessica Klein?’

  She looked up at him. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Gut, bekommen in der Rückseite des LKW.’ He indicated the military truck he’d just vacated. ‘Get in.’

  Jessica hesitated, unsure where this was leading.

  ‘Ach, kommen,’ the man said impatiently, pulling her forwards by the arm.

  Eric made to follow, but another soldier pushed him back. ‘Jessica!’ Eric cried out.

  ‘Eric!’ She pulled back. ‘What about him? Was ist mit ihm?!’

  The soldier, in no mood for games, kept her moving. ‘Er bleibt hier, he stays.’ He yanked her round to the rear of the vehicle and pushed her up into it.

  Jessica felt bereft and exposed without Eric, whom she’d grown to like during their time together. She also felt a maternal instinct towards him, and a bond born of their shared experiences. She prayed he’d be okay without her, any optimism about his safety, and hers, deriving from the fact that they’d kept them alive this long; why would they change things now? Not wanting to think up any reasons to fracture her brittle confidence she pushed the thoughts from her mind.

  Inside the truck an identical bench ran down either side. Jessica stayed standing, reluctant to get comfortable. Heavy black boots clattered up onto the metal floor-pan, the soldier’s bulky frames forcing Jessica to take a seat as they crammed in around her. The leader, who’d manhandled her, sat nearest the cab and banged a gloved fist on the metal panel, signalling to the driver they were ready to leave.

  The vehicle rolled back and then executed a tight six-point turn while Jessica looked out of the small rectangular opening between the tailgate and canvas roof. She felt a wash of emotions when Eric came into view, still standing in the same position, with the cigar smoker and his friend for company. He looked as forlorn as Jessica felt. Seeing her, he raised his hand in farewell and Jessica waved back as the truck moved off into the dark snowy forest. She watched until a bend in the road obstructed her view. With her young German friend no longer visible, she was left with only the grim, silent masked men around her for company in a new – and wholly unwanted – reality.

  ♦

  The journey into the depths of the snowbound forest went on and on, the endless bouncing and jolting almost hypnotic as Jessica rocked around inside the vehicle. Four hours must have passed and the truck now crept up an ever-increasing incline, the rocky road turning treacherous. Jessica guessed they were still inside Germany, although she couldn’t be sure. The duration of her enforced sedation could have lasted for hours or even days; for all she knew she could even be on another continent.

  The soldiers around her spoke little during the drive and to her, not at all. Up and up they climbed and Jessica’s clothing, which she’d stolen from the house back in the small town of Aalen, did little to keep out the freezing temperatures. With her teeth chattering, her sporadic shivering had become uncontrollable, the now continuous movement bringing the attention of one of the men upon her.

  ‘Sie hat den Tod einfrieren,’ the man said to his superior; Jessica barely heard him.

  ‘Ach.’ The leader stood up, took off his coat and pulled it around Jessica’s small shoulders. Crouching down in front of her, he did up the zipper and then vigorously rubbed her frost nipped fingers before breathing onto them, his own hands cupped around them, trying to increase the warmth and blood flow. After a while of this treatment, the tips of her fingers regained some feeling, sharp pains and tingling sensations confirming they hadn’t become frostbitten. He then switched his attention to her arms and legs.

  ‘Danke schön,’ Jessica said; her teeth still chattered a little, but her shivering had subsided.

  The man nodded to her before sitting back down, leaving Jessica wrapped in his thick, warm coat.

  Not much more time passed before the truck ground to a halt, the steep topography finally becoming too great for the vehicle to go any further. The men around her clambered out and hopped down to the ground; one of them held out a hand, which Jessica refused, opting to get out under her own steam.

  Torches were switched on one by one, until five beams of light radiated out into the mountainous landscape around them. The great trunks of many conifers, their bark coated with ice and snow, could be seen disappearing into the darkness like many immobile giants standing to attention and awaiting orders from an otherworldly omnipotent source.

  As one, the men moved away from the truck and on up into the forest. Jessica, encouraged to move into their midst, glanced back to see the relative security of the truck vanishing from sight.

  ‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked, not relishing trekking through the uninviting wilderness. ‘Wo bringen Sie mich?’

  No one answered her, but she didn’t have to wait long before they came across a small yellow tent hidden amongst the trees and boulder-strewn forest floor. From within this tiny haven emanated a bright warm glow. In the centre and at its peak a chimney poked out, puffs and wisps of smoke swirling up into the starless heavens.

  All but one of the men bypassed this oasis, the leader of the troop stopping to hold Jessica back and reclaim his coat. ‘Warten im Inneren.’ He pointed to the tent, let go of her arm and turned to leave.

  ‘Stop,’ she said in German, ‘where are you going?’

  ‘We’re continuing on, you need to wait in the tent, someone will meet you inside.’

  ‘What’s this all about?’ she asked, but he was already walking away, following his men up into the mountains.

  Confused, Jessica unfastened the tent flap and ducked inside, quickly closing the opening behind her to preserve the hot air within. The tent was larger than it had appeared from the outside. A small chimney had been erected in the middle, powered by a wood burning stove; cunningly constructed to prevent any flames or sparks igniting the padded floor under and around it. It was the wavering light from this fire that had glowed so invitingly from without. At the back lay an unfurled sleeping bag, its crumpled creases and central indentation indicating it had recently been used by its owner.

  As minutes turned to hours, Jessica made herself comfortable, enjoying the warmth that eroded the chill that had pervaded every fibre of her clothing and body. Feeling filthy and unwashed in her ill-fitting clothes, she tried her best to clean herself up, combing her tresses with her nails and wiping her face with hastily collected snow melt.

  A while later, the tent flap rustled before flopping open to reveal a man in a thick, bright orange jumpsuit. He had a pale, yet jovial, windburned face framed by a tight fitting fur lined hood. ‘Ah, hallo,’ the man said upon seeing her. ‘You’ve come a long way,’ he continued in German. ‘I hope they didn’t treat you too badly.’

  Jessica sat up straighter as he entered the tent. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘What? Didn’t they explain? No, why would they – any of them.’ Looking annoyed, he took off his thick orange mittens and put his hands out to the stove, rubbing them together for extra warmth. ‘My name is Franz, and you are Jessica Klein, no?’


  Jessica nodded. ‘But I don’t understand any of this; I was imprisoned, drugged and then driven out here, wherever here is—’

  ‘Imprisoned, drugged, oh dear. That is not good, not good at all. Those people are thieves and criminals, not to be trusted; the whole lot of them. Some, I think, are linked with a terrorist group out of the Middle East, the People’s Arabian Militia; perhaps you’ve heard of them?’

  Jessica shook her head.

  ‘No? You surprise me, a woman of the news such as yourself. But then these are dark times, full of censorship and oppression; things are not like they were, they are kept hidden, secret. That is why the likes of me end up rubbing shoulders with the likes of them, dark days indeed.’

  ‘So where are we? And who were those soldiers? They weren’t terrorists.’

  ‘We are in the northern reaches of the Alps, in Austria,’ Franz said, ‘and those soldiers were most definitely not terrorists, but troops from the German army, moonlighting, if you will, across borders.’

  ‘So why am I here? What’s all this about?’

  Franz gave her an odd look. ‘You don’t know? But you must know, he told me you knew.’

  ‘Who told you I knew what?’

  ‘The man who set up this meeting, of course, DMI, Da Muss Ich.’

  Chapter Forty

  Jessica stared at Franz in disbelief. ‘Da Muss Ich set up this meeting, Bic – the cyber terrorist?’

  ‘Yes, it has been arranged for some time. He didn’t tell you?’

  Jessica thought back to her brief conversations with Bic via the computer, some of her memories still jumbled from whatever powerful drug the kidnappers had pumped into her. ‘He did mention something about meeting a GMRC insider,’ she said, ‘but that was before he betrayed us, before we were taken captive.’

  ‘There is someone else with you?’ Franz asked in concern. ‘I can only get access for one person, no more, two would be an impossibility.’

  Frowning and disregarding his question, Jessica rubbed her temples trying to piece together the disjointed puzzle in her mind. ‘You’re the man who works on the classified programme, aren’t you?’ A section snapped into place. ‘The insider who can tell me the truth about the GMRC and what they’re hiding?’

  Franz smiled at her. ‘Do you want to see?’ he said, a twinkle in his eye.

  ♦

  Jessica traipsed through the freezing Austrian alpine forest dressed in bright orange clothing, provided for her by Franz who, a few steps ahead with a torch in his hand, guided her to a destination that would finally reveal the GMRC’s most secret of truths. What that would be she could only guess at, but the anticipation was palpable and increased with every step she took.

  They’d been walking for a couple of hours and Jessica’s tired limbs vied with a thirst for water to see which could exact on her the most discomfort. After cresting a ridge and dropping down into a valley, Jessica thought she glimpsed lights in the distance through the trees, lots and lots of lights.

  A deep rumbling noise built in the skies overhead, getting louder and louder until a deafening roar shot past, disturbing the snow-clad treetops. Another high-speed Sabre fighter followed in its wake, both heading down the valley at frightening speed.

  ‘Air patrols,’ Franz said over his shoulder, dislodged snow falling around them in the torchlight, ‘regular as clockwork, nothing moves down here without them knowing about it.’

  ‘What about us?’ Jessica asked, ‘they know we’re here?’

  ‘Of course, I should know, it’s part of my job; I work in the security centre.’

  ‘Security centre for what?’

  ‘You’ll see.’

  Jessica stifled an angry retort. Franz, while amiable, was certainly not forthcoming about what he was taking her to see, putting her off with ambiguities which seemed to amuse his penchant for the dramatic.

  With the trees thinning, the slope bottomed out to a gravel and slate laden basin. Encircling this massive clearing stood a chain of mighty floodlights, higher than the trees that encircled them. At the far end of the valley a monstrous wall stretched across like an enormous uncoiled snake that had been turned to glistening, grey stone, its petrified carcass serving others in its death.

  A resonating hum made Jessica turn to see five tandem coaxial rotor helicopters skimming in low over the trees before crossing the large open expanse and moving on towards the distant monolithic wall. Each of these black aircraft bore the gleaming white logo of her nemesis, the power hungry and out of control behemoth, the GMRC.

  Further along, after walking around a tiny portion of the basin’s edge, which resembled the shallow pit of an open mine, they reached a small white building. Next to this stood an open-top vehicle, a kind of dune buggy with massive oversized wheels and a transparent shell. They climbed into the front seats, the edges of the low profile tyres now higher than their heads, and a bright blue head-up-display blazed to life on the front windscreen. Pressing a touch button, Franz started the electric engine and drove them towards the activity around the wall.

  He passed her a red, hard hat. ‘Put this on,’ he said, still speaking in German.

  She put on the helmet and he followed suit, his own helmet white.

  ‘And you’ll need this.’ He dangled a metallic badge on a chain before her, the cold wind whipping at it through the open vehicle.

  Accepting the proffered lanyard, Jessica inspected the curious design of the accompanying card. The GMRC logo was engraved in the top right-hand corner and on the left was her facial image and her pseudonym, Eliza Sterling, the name her deceased friend and colleague, Martin, had given her prior to her leaving England. Putting the chain around her neck, Jessica felt a certain amount of trepidation as the wall grew nearer. The astounding structure must have been over a hundred foot high and bristled with lights all along its formidable length. She could see now that it wasn’t a barrier, but an enclosure, the sides at each end curving round and out of sight.

  Bouncing along in the buggy, they skimmed along next to the wall; armed soldiers could be seen patrolling high above, on top. The sentries wore white balaclavas and identical clothing to the men who had escorted her to the meeting with Franz.

  An entrance through the wall came into view and Franz turned to her. ‘When we get inside, let me do all the talking; you’re a security inspector from another facility and are there to observe only.’

  ‘What facility?’ she said, alarmed by the lack of detail to her cover story.

  ‘They won’t ask.’ He slowed the vehicle. ‘They’re not allowed to know.’

  ‘Convenient,’ she said.

  He flashed her a smile that looked more like a grimace. ‘That card is all you need. Da Muss Ich and I have ensured your entry will go unnoticed; as long as we keep to the plan nothing will go wrong.’

  ‘I’ve heard that before,’ Jessica muttered under her breath.

  ‘Act natural,’ he said, the vehicle stopping on a flat piece of concrete, ‘here we go.’

  Here we go where? Jessica thought. The imposing gates in front of them still stood tightly closed with no sign of opening. The futuristic buggy rocked as the ground beneath them shifted. Slabs of concrete reared up all around and they sank into the earth, their descent giving the impression that the wall rose higher above them.

  The platform shuddered to a halt, revealing a road ahead blocked off by a substantial metal barrier that protruded from its tarmac surface. On either side, a team of grey garbed men and women emerged from glass partitioned offices built into the super-sophisticated underground security checkpoint. Some scanned the exterior and interior of the vehicle, while others ran Franz’s and Jessica’s identity badges through a handheld computer, even stopping to take DNA and hair samples from each of them. Jessica hoped Franz and Bic had done a good job at gaining her access; she could see herself locked up permanently if her deception was exposed. The security personnel were apparently satisfied with their checks and Franz rolled the car fo
rwards and onto another platform. A large rectangular scanner rose out of the floor, its metal frame zipping up and down and around them at a frenetic pace, a plethora of crystal blue laser-like lights covering every inch of the buggy and its passengers with their pervasive fan-shaped beams.

  ‘Put this on.’ Franz handed her a small face mask, the two small discs on the front marking it as a piece of breathing apparatus. Jessica did so just before a white light above shone down on them and jets of warm mist blasted over every inch of the vehicle like some out of control, ultra high-tech car wash. Once this process had subsided, the buggy and their bright orange outfits glistened with a fine film of residue. A loud buzzer blared out and the metal barrier sank into the floor, allowing Franz to drive over it and down a long, brightly lit tunnel.

  When they emerged from below ground onto a raised, single-lane road Jessica caught her breath; the panorama before her was awe-inspiring to behold. Above, a transparent covering stretched away in all directions. Travelling further in, Jessica could tell that this massive see-through dish, if viewed outside from the air, would resemble a funnel; similar to the end of a wind instrument like a tuba, but with the hole in the middle being much smaller and the curve shallower.

  Below the elevated highway, Jessica could see that this gargantuan, shielded, indoor area, a few miles across, had indeed been built over an open mine. The huge pit descended in great steps of rock hewn from the earth’s crust; down and down they went, each level supporting a whole host of pipework and cabling ranging in diameter from the size of a person’s arm to the width of a large house. All around, a web of interconnecting turbines powered the facility, their giant, bulging shells arranged in a series of systems so complex it boggled the mind just to look at.

  Throughout this structure, people could be seen carrying out their duties, all wearing the appropriate hard hats and various coloured coveralls, perhaps denoting their specific department or team. At the epicentre of this mass of activity a towering structure thrust up from deep underground, creating the supporting hub for the vast, translucent, inverted funnel-dome around it. The top of this central tower also extended above the dome itself, cutting a path to the air outside. From her vantage point inside the buggy, Jessica saw that numerous circular platforms sprouted from the sides of the building, many of them occupied by the large black helicopters she’d seen only a short while before.