Falling Ark

by Leigh Snelson

  As the door flew open an uncontrollable whistle of admiration left my lips. I was used to working at the best facilities, with the best equipment but this place was something entirely different.

  It was nowhere near as polished, not compared to what I was used to. There were cables and equipment scattered around floor and the walls were nothing but brick and dust. The floor was broken concrete and there was clearly no outsourced cleaning company attending this place every night.

  What it lacked in polish it made up for in technology and equipment.

  It was one big room, around ten metres square. On the far wall a set of large TV screens hung from floor to ceiling. They were not switched on yet and I could see myself reflected in the glass. In front of this were desks with their own monitors and computers all facing the wall. Clearly inspired by a NASA command centre but with only six desks.

  To my right there were small, office style partition walls forming two private cubicles. Each of these contained a bunk bed and basic furniture, a table with a lamp and a set of drawers. Clearly these were set up as bedrooms and inspired by military barracks.

  On the left stainless-steel kitchen units filled the wall, at the far end a giant, bank vault style door that I quickly realised was a walk-in fridge/freezer.

  Behind me a door with letters ‘WC’. I don’t need to explain that.

  “Wow, I am impressed, you have thought of everything.” I said.

  “It’s not really complete, I wanted to put down carpet.” Sam replied, tapping his feet on the bare floor.

  “I think the concrete really adds to the ‘secret lair’ aesthetic of this place.” I replied. “The cold steel kitchen and the military bunkbeds really enforce the idea that the world has ended.”

  “Thanks, we haven’t bought the sofa or the hot tub yet.” Sam commented as he walked over to one of the computer desks.

  I started to walk around the room. In the middle something caught my attention. The concrete floor stopped and made way for a large glass circle approximately two metres in diameter. Beneath plunged a hole of unknown depth that was glowing green with little lights and as I walked over it my shadow was cast over the ceiling.

  “Is this safe?” I asked as I stood over the glass and I looked down into the abyss.

  “Safer than the nuclear sub that I stole it off.” Said replied, trying to make a joke.

  “It’s nuclear?” I yelled.

  “Relax, it’s all self-contained, plus, if comic books have taught me anything, radiation leaks give you superpowers!” Sam smirked.

  I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or run.

  “What do you think? This place should keep the zombies out, or a crazy megalomaniac who is trying to kill you.” Sam joked.

  My jaw had been hanging since I walked in and Sam could read the amazement written all over my face.

  “How did you build all of this?” I asked, genuinely at a loss for ideas. “Where did it come from? The money, the technology, everything. How do you get access to all of this without anyone noticing?”

  “It’s been a project of mine over the years. It’s not what I would call ‘finished’ but I didn’t expect guests so soon. I have also been lucky enough to obtain some cool tech over the years.” Sam explained as he walked me over to the wall of screens.

  As we got closer the entire wall came alive and displayed video feeds from cameras all around the barn. In the centre a satellite view showed the entire local area.

  “Who gave you a satellite?” I asked, pointing at the screen.

  “No, that’s not a satellite, I don’t trust satellites. That is a combination of radar, sonar and all kinds of other sensors built into the cameras. Combine the data together and it gives me a 3-dimensional live model of the surrounding area.” Sam said as he jumped over a large desk in the middle of the room.

  It was a solid metal frame with a large glass top, rectangular and roughly two metres by one metre. It looked like it was designed as a conference table, but without chairs, it was too tall.

  Sam pressed a button built into the glass top.

  “Touch screen desks? That’s pretty awesome.” I remarked as I walked over to it.

  “Not quite.” Sam replied with a smirk. Clearly, he was building up to something.

  When I stepped up to the desk my vision went blurry as a light shined through the glass panel and into my eyes. Within moments it had gone but the desk now had a miniature model of the barn and surrounding areas placed on top.

  Instinctively I reached out to touch the model. My hand floated through it causing it to wobble and shimmer.

  “Holograms!” I asked excitedly. “This is cutting edge stuff. I don’t want to know who you double crossed to get this!”

  Sam smiled at me.

  “Now you’re getting the idea.” He said.

  I could tell that the hologram was a live model of the outside world. The trees were swaying in the wind and a flag was fluttering from on top of the barn. The resolution was fantastic, I could even make out the skull and crossbones on the flag with the numbers 322 underneath.

  I reached into my pocket to retrieve my phone. I had to get a picture of this.

  “Do you think it’s safe to turn this back on?” I asked as I gestured with my phone.

  “Absolutely. No signals are getting in or out of here I promise you! You’ll need the Wi-Fi password, its ‘skullandbones’ all one word.” Sam informed me.

  After a moment the phone turned on and I launched the camera, pointing it at the model on the glass table.

  “Oh, you can’t take a picture of it.” Sam interrupted.

  “Why not?” I asked. “I won’t show anyone.”

  “No, it doesn’t work like that. It’s not a hologram, it works by facial recognition and projecting the images straight into your eyes. It looks real to anyone stood around the table but nobody else can see what you are seeing.” Sam explained.

  It was true. My phone camera displayed the glass top with a lot of little lights flashing underneath.

  “Wow, the processing power alone to do that is immense. How many people can use it?” I asked.

  “Honestly I don’t know the limit. I have seen six people use it at the same time.” Sam said.

  “And you are looking at the barn, just like I am?” I asked.

  “Not quite.” Sam replied. “I’ve zoomed out and added a few layers of data. The basic model is the same though.”

  “So, you can see the two cars heading this way?” I asked, slightly worried.

  “What cars?” Sam exclaimed, panic in his voice. He gestured with his arms over the table, removing whatever he was looking at, then he stopped and looked at the same place on the table that I was looking at.

  A red light filled the room and a robotic voice came out of speakers I couldn’t locate, perhaps buried in the walls?

  “Bravo and Delta approaching.” The voice said.

  “Bravo and Delta?” I asked. I could tell my face was expressing the confusion I was feeling.

  “Oh yeah.” Sam let out a small sigh of relief. “I forgot. I have procedures in place. You are going to love these guys!”

  “People?” I questioned. “Can we trust them?”

  “I sure hope so, they helped me build this place.” Sam said, pointing around at the barn. “When we got in the car this morning, we triggered an event and alerted the others. Just sit back and don’t worry, like I said you’re going to love these guys.”

  I watched as the cars drove up to the old stable house where we had stashed Sam’s self-driving car. Two cars drove in and two figures walked out, one tall and one short.

  As I looked closer, I realised it was a woman and one huge man. They made their way over to the barn taking different routes, hiding their tracks then the doors behind me opened, pouring light into the dark basement.

  Chapter 6

  “Who is this guy?” Asked the incredibly tall and muscular man who had just had to duck to enter the room. “And tell me h
e is not the reason why we are here!”

  Sam looked at me and then back at the man.

  “This is Dom, yes, he is the reason why we are here.” Sam said, trying to defend me.

  “This better be good! I had things to do today!” The young woman scowled at me as she circled, eyeing me up and down. She was shorter than me, but she would have won in a physical confrontation, she seemed very scrappy.

  “Just hear me out. Dom is an old school mate of mine and you won’t believe what he did last night!”

  They both looked at me, neither of them happy about being here. These two looked more menacing that the guards back at VisionTech.

  The giant man, perhaps in his forties, at least ten years older than me, was not someone I wanted to mess with. He looked like he could crush me with just two fingers, and I think I probably weighed as much as one of his huge, powerful arms. He stood there, in a tank top that emphasised his muscles and I suspected he had just left the gym, where he obviously lived.

  The younger girl scared me even more. There was something about her, the way she looked at me, judging me. It was unnerving.

  “Well then. Spit it out.” She said.

  She must have been in her mid-twenties. A few years younger than me. Short and slim with shoulder length hair that came in a variety of colours depending on which angle you saw her from. By all accounts I would have considered her attractive if her eyes didn’t want to kill me.

  I stood there, a lamb to the slaughter, looking at Sam, then to the tall man, and then to the girl.

  She started to gesture for me to start talking, so I did.

  Over the next few minutes, I explained the situation, my background, what happened with Lara at the facility and how I ended up here in the barn.

  As I got into the story everyone started to relax, finding chairs to use and their threatening stares turned into confusion and then excitement. I knew I had them on my side when, finally the big guy asked.

  “Well, where is it?”

  I glanced over towards the back of the basement and their eyes followed mine. Sitting on the kitchen counter was my lab coat and within it was the gravity defying beach ball that had started all of this.

  I walked over to it, felt the metal ball within the coat and pressed the button on top.

  The white fabric of the coat shifted and started hovering at eye level like a cheap Halloween ghost. Except this hovering, white sheet didn’t have and cables holding it up.

  “Okay, I’m sold” I heard a deep voice from behind me. I turned and saw the big guy starting to walk over to me.

  “Hank Williams.” He said, holding out his huge hand for me to shake. “I’ve spent most of my life being the personal security for most of the world’s elite so you’re in good hands around me.”

  I shook his hand, or rather his giant paw wrapped around mine. I shot Sam a nervous look.

  “Oh Hank, modest as ever.” Sam got up from his chair and walked over. “Hank is a private hitman, and one of the best.”

  A cough and a grumble came from Hank as he towered over Sam.

  “Sorry, personal bodyguard.” Sam gave Hank and knowing smile. “You could say that Hank literally helped to build this place, well he did all the heavy lifting.”

  “You weren’t going to do any manual labour, were you?” The voice came bouncing across the room.

  A small, feminine hand was held out by the young girl as she approached.

  “I’m Ava. All these screens you see, I programmed them all.” Ava smiled at me. It was a stark contrast to the person who originally greeted me. Gone were the murderous eyes and cold demeanour and I made a mental note not to ever make her angry.

  “Thank you for looking after me.” I said apologetically. “I don’t really know what I am going to do next and I’m sorry for dragging you into all of this.”

  Sam walked over to the screens. “It seems obvious what we should do next, doesn’t it?”

  I looked at Sam curiously and wondered what he had in mind.

  “Lara has your plans to create these anti-gravity orbs, and she is going to sell them to the highest bidder.” Sam stated.

  “Yes. But it’s her company, she can do that if she wants.” I explained.

  “But you don’t agree with it?” Sam asked.

  “No, not really, I think they should be sold to everyone, at a sensible price, like the robots were years ago.” I replied.

  “Lara isn’t going to care who she sells them too.” Hank interrupted.

  “And that will stifle the inventions that should come from this. We need to get this technology out to as many people as possible, there is huge potential.” I continued.

  “We need to take back your designs” Sam added.

  “Go on, you’ve clearly thought of something.” Ava said, insisting that Sam gets on with it.

  “Well it seems that we need to get the plans from VisionTech computers. Then we can distribute them to more deserving companies. Lara is worried that Dom is going to give away the secrets, so that’s exactly what we should do.” Sam explained.

  I looked around and saw Ava and Hank nodding in agreement.

  “I agree too.” A voice appeared from the back of the room.

  All heads spun around to see where the noise came from.

  Out of the shadows of the dimly lit corner near the toilet stood a middle-aged man, slender and wearing a posh suit.

  “How do you do that!” Ava cried as she ran over to hug the man.

  “Oh Ava, I know you think your security system is impressive but don’t forget, I am undetectable!” The man pulled up a chair next to me. “Hi Dom, fascinating story, they call me Houdini.” The man said as he held out a hand.

  “No, they don’t!” Ava exclaimed. “Only you call yourself that and you’re not that good, I would like to see you break into this place without that little pin on your collar, Derek!” She flicked the pin on his shirt as walked past and took her own seat.

  “Derek, how nice of you to finally show up!” Sam said, speaking up above everyone else. “If we are doing introductions, let’s do them right!”

  He wandered over to the kitchen and got a selection of bottles from the cupboards and brought them back to the holotable where the graphics displayed information around each bottle that was placed upon it.

  “I think this at least calls for a drink.”

  “I see you have met Hank.” Derek said to me. “All that muscle has unfortunately limited his sense of humour, so you have to take it slow with him.”

  “Oh yeah!” Hank replied, “I seem to remember I had a good sense of humour on your wedding night!”

  “That was not funny! You still haven’t told me where you got that snake from, or where it went!” Cried Derek as he reached for one of the bottles and poured himself a generous drink.

  “You got him a snake for a wedding gift?” I asked.

  “No, he hid it in my hotel room. I had just returned from the party with my wife, pulled back the bed sheets and lying there was a giant snake!” Derek snarled at Hank.

  “Sounds like a fun night!” I commented, reaching for a drink myself.

  I don’t normally drink so I opened a bottle of cider and prepared to nurse it for the rest of the conversation.

  “So how do you get hold of a snake?” I asked Hank as he poured an entire bottle down his neck in one go.

  “A guy from my military days lent it too me. Truth is, he got annoyed when I didn’t return it for a week.” Hank said, opening another bottle and only drinking half the contents this time.

  “Why did you need the snake for a week?” Ava asked.

  “I didn’t, but it slid away and I couldn’t find it until the hotel rang me up a week later, the snake had made its way into the kitchen where it found a rat nest, that’s why they weren’t bothered, it saved them extermination costs.”

  “You said you found it and removed it!” Derek yelled at Hank! “That was the only reason I went back in the building, because you
said you had caught it!”

  “Oops.” Hank smiled.

  “You spent time in the military?” I asked, trying to change the direction of the conversation.

  “Yes, when I was younger.” Hank replied, trying to shut down the conversation.

  “Go on, tell him about your military days.” Derek urged.

  “There is not much to tell. I did a few deployments, nothing too exciting.” Hank explained.

  “You’re too modest. Hank has protected many of the world’s leaders, been a royal bodyguard and was a member of the Special Forces.” Derek added.

  “Yes, but that’s all behind me now.” Hank replied, trying once again to shut down the conversation.

  “Of course, it is.” Derek continued. “Now you’re a hired bodyguard for the rich and famous, weren’t you protecting that yacht of movie stars two weeks ago?”

  “How do you know about that?” Hank asked, shocked at the revelation.

  “Who do you think got you that job? That is what I do!” Derek said, turning to me and smiling. “I’m in the security trade.”

  “That’s cool, doing what exactly?” I asked.

  “Well, I trained as a locksmith but these days I ensure total privacy for security conscious billionaires. You want a panic room installing or anti-theft devices adding to your art portfolio, I’m your man!”

  “How exactly did you get me that job?” Hank asked, sounding a bit bemused.

  “I told you, he’s a bit slow, it’s all the muscle.” Derek whispered to me before turning back to Frank. “I was fitting out that yacht when they asked me if I knew any good security people.”

  “Thanks.” Hank mumbled into his beer.

  “Oh, I didn’t suggest you, I suggested a bunch of other people, but they were all busy, you were the only person available at short notice.” Derek laughed.

  “What’s that supposed to mean!” Hank stood up and the table rattled under his force.

  “Boys! Learn to play nice!” Ava said, slamming her bottle into the glass top of the table. I winced at the action, expecting the glass to have cracked, but not even a smudge was visible on the pristine polished glass.

  “Yes, Hank is a bodyguard, one of the best, and Derek is in security, but don’t upset him, otherwise he’ll screw you over!” Ava added.