Midnight Zone: a Cade Rearden Thriller

by JK Franks

Margaret waited until Doris confirmed what she was already certain of. “What I know is you look remarkably young for a 79-year-old man.”

  Everyone else in the room looked confused except for Stansfield and Goldman. “The ship’s bell,” she said.

  He nodded, “Never be sentimental over things. Took me years to track that damn thing down. The ship was sold for scrap after it was decommissioned. Damn government never wanted any reminders of that fuck-up. I thought for a while I was going to have to buy the entire ship at salvage. Luckily, one of the last ship’s officers had swiped it as a souvenir.”

  “You are Ishel Golette, The Lion, former major in the U.S. Army Intelligence, aren’t you?” Margaret didn’t bother waiting for a response. “You stole the research for Project Saraph from a lab in Tel Aviv in 1967. Ivan Thrall’s father helped you escape as the USS Liberty was being attacked by Israeli forces.”

  Goldman just gave a tiny non-committal shrug. “Not one of my better operations. It got very messy. One should never fuck with the Israelis, especially when they are at war.”

  “Fill in some gaps for me, Ishel. You went in that week to get the intel and got caught leaving the labs. Was that what brought all the attention on the Navy ship?”

  “No.”

  “Just no?” Margaret asked. “We know the lab personnel were killed; the lab destroyed; your partner was killed, yet you somehow managed to get away with the goods.”

  “That was the MIS official version. It was close on most counts, but as normal with the military, ignored a few basic facts. One that wouldn’t fit the official narrative.”

  “Such as?”

  Goldman answered, “Such as I had been undercover for eight months. I had finally secured a job working as a courier for the lab. Mostly routine stuff, but enough to know the U.S. Government was way off on what they thought the Israelis had. “

  “And what was that?” the director asked.

  “Not that important, but they were desperate for any new weapon that might be useful against Vietnam, or even more, the Russians. I knew if Shafi’s research went to America, it would be buried and forgotten. As soon as they realized it had no real military value, it would be lost to history… again.”

  “Shafi? That would be Doctor Shafi Rabin. The lead scientist and the one who’d recovered it in the Antarctic twenty-two years earlier. Wasn’t she a bit old for you? And equipped with the wrong body parts?”

  “What can I say, my taste was always a bit…eclectic? Shafi had been very young when she was assigned to Highjump, where she found the cave and the samples. She was an amazing woman, a brilliant mind.”

  “You leaked the theft to the Israelis; you compromised your own mission? Was that why tensions were so high that week?”

  “Who knows? The Jewish state is surrounded by countries that want them gone. Tensions are always high.”

  “So, you and Shafi got away with the research.”

  “Sadly, no. She was killed. I was unaware there was a second operative until it was too late. He killed her just as she was giving me the last of the materials. His orders had been to leave no witnesses,” Golette said.

  “But he was killed during the raid?”

  Golette nodded, “I did that myself on the boat. The fucking bastard.”

  “So, you eventually made it back to America without landing on anyone’s radar and met back up with the elder Thrall to begin work on the Angel code,” Margaret continued.

  He nodded.

  “I am curious, I assume somewhere in the massive genetic data, you discovered a way to halt aging. Why did Peter Thrall not use it as well? The fountain of youth is everybody’s dream, isn’t it?”

  “He had a family—it would have raised too many questions eventually, and he’d already learned he had heart disease. Something the treatment would not have corrected. Also, I was creating aliases every few years and was very skilled at disappearing. To be honest, all the aging stuff was Shafi’s findings. She’d made that much progress, but it took decades for the science to catch up to a point we could try it.”

  Margaret delivered the most important question, “Okay, Golette, we are going to move you to a secure location to continue this little discussion. We have some questions about your associates, but right now I need to know what else the Kalypso is up to. What is its purpose?”

  He smiled, “It is simple, we are going to save the world.”

  81

  Caribbean

  “Nomad, you have incoming calls from Doris and Director Stans…”

  “Not fucking now, Dee! Can you not see? Fuck!” He searched in vain for some way out to survive the next few minutes. The massive Saraph just kept rising up toward them. “Tell ‘em I’m away from my desk and to leave a message.”

  He selected Comm to Comm. “Alias, status update.”

  “Back in my own XOD, moving to the flank. That damn thing has 100 meter tentacles, Boss.”

  Cade nodded, he was pretty damn close to packing up his toys and going home. The creature swimming up from the depths wasn’t just larger; it was different, seemingly more ancient and more dangerous. Kind of like comparing a crocodile to a T-Rex. He needed a minute to think. Grabbing the largest part of fractured carapace of the dead Saraph, he tucked his entire body into it. Bloody pieces of meat and skin or fat…or something, clung to the inside skeletal walls. It was all he could do not to vomit into his own helmet. “Alan, Riley, you guys still there? Any ideas?”

  “We’re working on it, Nomad. “

  “Work faster.” He was whispering into his comms, even though he instinctively knew the animal couldn’t have heard him even if he shouted. If there was a time for stealth, though, it was now. Depth readout was, Holy shit. He had over two-and-a-half miles of water above his head. Despite the amazing suits, he could now feel some cold creeping through. Nearly burn to death at the South Pole and then freeze to death in the goddamn Caribbean. Irony is a bitch, brother. “Not helping, Gus.”

  Besides the slight chill from the depth, the pressure was impeding his movements. Not a lot, but even a little might be lethal with what he had to do next. “Riley, what’s the big one doing?”

  “Seems to be hunting. You are the closest by far, Cade, but it’s ignoring you.”

  “Seriously? Ignoring me?”

  “Shit!” Alias yelled. “Oh, my God, make it stop!”

  “Nomad…Cade!” Alan yelled to get his attention. “It’s using its neural blast; the suit’s shielding isn’t stopping it. It’s way more powerful than the others.”

  Cade could now see pulsing blue light reflecting off the front edge of the carapace.

  “Nomad, you have two urgent messages from…”

  “Dee, stop, for fuck's sake. I am about to be eaten by an alien sea dragon!”

  The Saraph doesn’t see you as a threat. Cade almost asked who said that before realizing he did. “Ace, is that you?”

  It is. You can maneuver this carcass close enough to attack, the analyst said. He then proceeded to tell Cade the necessary steps to take.

  “Holy shit.” He was out of his mind, in more ways than one. First, Cade moved the rest of WarHawk back. At this point, only a couple of them were still in the fight, but Cade intended they stay alive. He triggered his suit jets and the Saraph hard shell began to drift down faster and adjusted course to angle toward the approaching behemoth.

  “Time to intercept is ten minutes. Would you like to take those calls now?” Dee said cheerily.

  He spent precious seconds trying to figure out if he could strangle his own personal computerized assistant. Finally realizing he was outmatched by his AI and the approaching monster, he gave in. “Yes, Dee, go for Nomad.”

  “I know you have your hands full, Captain, but we have a situation,” the director's voice cut through him like an internal river of ice water. “One of Thrall’s associates has just revealed that Kalypso was built to survive the end of the world.”

  “I suppose that means they aren’t just going t
o hand us the keys to the front door and go home then.”

  “Funny, Captain, and inappropriate. No, it’s worse. Thrall has a technology on board. Something they call the Icarus device. It is likely based on technology learned from the Saraph. We have yet to get anything more specific out of the man, but the implications are that it will be capable of mass destruction.

  “Thrall apparently wants to give the ultimate fuck-off to mankind. Also, by depopulating much of the planet, it will ease all the strain on natural resources. I presume leaving him and his army of Saraphs to guide mankind to a more peaceful and pollution-free tomorrow.”

  Jesus Christ, Cade thought as the glowing mountain of monster approached. What next?

  “Captain, The Lion said the launch wasn’t imminent but could be triggered if they felt threatened.”

  “Of course it can,” he said, sarcasm dripping from each word. “Anything else?”

  “One thing more,” Margaret said quietly. “Once triggered, Icarus can’t be stopped, not even by them.”

  Cade let that little turd of intel just hang there; commenting on it would serve no purpose. It was a no-win scenario. Even if they could somehow win out here, they would lose once they breeched the Kalypso.

  “Cade.”

  It took him several seconds to place the voice. The Germanic accent had faded considerably.

  “Mila?”

  “Ja, I wanted to talk to you before you do what I know you must be doing.”

  He was confused and guarded but knew Doris must have really wanted them to talk. “Go ahead, I have a few minutes.” And maybe only a few minutes, he thought grimly.

  “I wanted,” she paused, her voice cracking as she started again. “I wanted to say thank you. I have already expressed the same to Doris. I am not one prone to show of kindness, and I am not sure I ever been shown any, but what you both have done for me this last week is beyond any words I can offer.”

  “So, the treatments have helped?” Cade watched as a claw the size of a truck sailed past on a long tentacle arm with razor sharp, barbed suckers glowing along the flattened lower side.

  “They have, but that is not why I wanted to talk to you. Doris is sending you my recollection of the inside of Kalypso. Maybe it will help. One other thing...”

  “Yes, Mila, go ahead.”

  “I am sorry, but there are at least two more Schatten aboard as permanent security. They are the best we had.”

  Well, fuck, Cade thought, the day just keeps getting better. “Any weaknesses, habits, favorite weapons, anything that might help?”

  “They are killers, Cade,” Mila continued. “They are obsessive-compulsive killers. They have no weakness. Even in sparring, none of us ever bested them.”

  Of course. What other kind of guard would a crazy person have? “Mila, thank you. If you think of anything else, just let Doris know, she will get it to us. One last question. Are you going to be okay with yourself, now that you feel…now that you care?”

  She was silent for several long seconds. “I hope so…I wasn’t sure for a few days. The need to injure myself was overwhelming, but Doris and your Doctor Han and Turner have helped. I think I want to live—I just can’t imagine why.”

  “Let us work on the why, Mila. Together, maybe we can find a purpose. I do need to go to work now.” They disconnected. He forced the conversation deeper into his mind. Still struggling to separate the anger at who she had been to the woman she was now becoming. The Saraph was near enough, he could see eyes on thick stalks above its head. Cade, in his best impression of a hermit crab, drifted over the gigantic tentacles. Two of the eyes rotated, tracking the shell with him hidden deep inside. He dared not move. Then they circled back toward the others. “Here comes stupid!” Cade yelled as he jumped out of the shell and down toward center-mass of the massive Saraph.

  82

  Cade, buddy. This is completely fucking insane! That may have been Gus pleading, or it could have just been his own tiny voice of self-preservation. The Saraph passed directly underneath him, twenty meters below. No other targets had been detected, but Kalypso was ascending faster now. If Thrall’s people were able to monitor the Saraph’s activity, then they would soon know something was going on.

  “Nomad, have you lost your mind?”

  That was Deuce, he thought. His friend must have recovered, but he and most of WarHawk would be directly in the path of the last Saraph in seconds.

  Fifteen Meters.

  Cade reached behind his suit to the Jackknife’s weapons locker. He hadn’t carried a lancet just so he could carry the one object it did contain. It wasn’t even a weapon; it was what they’d been planning to use to force entry into Kalypso. Thankfully, Alan had already proven this could work as a weapon. For that knowledge, he would be eternally grateful.

  While Riley called it a Phase Shift Disruptor, all the guys would never refer to it as anything but the Magic Stick. This version was about four feet long and was more multi purpose than the first gen version. They could now set it so the opening would be permanent, and he could even direct the size and shape of the hole. He had Dee set it to activate on contact. This new one could even draw power directly from the suit's internal supply, reducing the time to recharge. Using it underwater as a weapon just presented one colossal problem. He had to hold it against the object then swim through the opening it created, holding it out in front.

  Orienting himself upside down was simple enough. Down here, gravity was practically undetectable, and the sensation of up and down had pretty much lost all relevance.

  Ten Meters.

  Cade could feel the power rippling through the beast below. A tentacle whipped past, just missing him. The Saraph filled his visor entirely now. A growl erupted from somewhere deep inside as Cade knew that Brutus was ready to be freed from his restraints. “A few more seconds, big guy. Just let me get the thing activated.” The brute living in his skull was not good with technology…tech to the barbarian had never advanced beyond clubs and spears, his preferred weapons in combat. Even those were usually a few steps above his typical weapons. Brutus tended to use whatever was close. A chair, a rock, sometimes his opponent’s own appendages.

  Five meters—the water itself seemed to vibrate near the beast. He held the rod out in front, took a firm grasp and…a meaty arm slapped him from the side as a snake-like vice encircled his leg. Tentacles suddenly seemed to approach from every direction. “Not one of your more brilliant plans, Ace,” Cade said as he was slapped around inside the XOD.

  Pressure warnings erupted under the increasing stresses on the suit. One tentacle now encircled his head, cutting off any live view, not that he really wanted to watch his own demise or anything.

  “Shit, shit shit…”

  His mind seemed to slow down. Every move of the ongoing battle between him and this alien creature unfolded in agonizing slowness. This was life, this was death. This was why they both existed. To battle, to die. Cade pulled his arms in, activating the disruptor, and instantly, a tentacle erupted and fell away only to immediately be replaced by another. He felt his body being flung rapidly from side to side. It was obvious the animal hadn’t encountered prey with such a well-armored shell. Still, Cade knew, as good as it was, it wouldn’t last forever.

  “Hang in there, Nomad, WarHawk is coming.”

  “Kalypso is within visual range, Nomad,” his Dee said cheerily. Cade decided he really didn’t care for her British accent anymore.

  He wanted to warn Deuce off, make them flee to safety, but he was losing control of the situation as well as his own mind. He opened his mouth to speak, and it came out as a growl. Oh, shit, was his final lucid thought while losing control of his own body.

  Brutus swung wildly; the Magic Stick thankfully clipped into receptacles in the suit’s gloves. It phased through claws and tentacles, but the animal simply overwhelmed the suit’s functions. The limits of movement in the deep water, combined with the restraints of the tentacles, were causing cascading suit failure
s. The XOD was seconds away from going into safe mode. Through a gap between two massive, suckered arms, Cade watched helplessly as the glowing face of the Saraph loomed up. The needle-like teeth seemed to be dancing like tiny hooks awaiting to drag him down inside the mouth. Damn, these things are ugly.

  Dee said, “Be ready, Nomad...”

  Cade felt the monster twitch, Brutus freed an arm, and the onboard combat system triggered the Magic Stick to form an orb-like shield between it and the creature’s mouth. The animal jerked again, and Cade heard Deuce yelling for Alias and Hammer to move toward the rear of the Saraph. Brutus flailed, severing more of the arms, then someone’s lancet cut through the tentacle that was holding Cade’s legs. Free to maneuver again, Cade urged Brutus to take the fight to the beast.

  Maybe less ‘mano a mano’ and more ‘mano a pulpo,’ or would that be tentáculo? asked Gus.

  Again, guys, not the time for this discussion, Cade thought.

  Welcome, amigos, to the box seats section. Gus stated. This is where we get to see what stupid shit we will be doing with our body today.

  The Saraph claw came slicing down at incredible speed. Cade knew he would lose an arm, but miraculously, the suit’s wrist flexed upward, absorbing the blow and deflecting the claw into the disruptor’s field. Thank God for Magic-Sticks, he thought.

  “Suit integrity is below seventy percent. The oxygen regeneration is compromised, thermal barrier is offline.”

  The creature's mouth looked to be the size of an apartment, and it loomed way too close. Cade could feel the cold instantly numbing his extremities. He had minutes, maybe even just seconds to live. He managed to signal the suit to fire all thrusters. You want to go in there? the Gus persona asked incredulously. That happens to be where the monster wants you to go. You do see those teeth, right, Kemosabe?

  The suit's jets fired. At first, nothing happened. The animal still had his XOD too firmly grasped, but slowly, the grip from the remaining arms of the Saraph loosened. Not a lot, but just enough. Cade willed Brutus to lower the Magic Stick back to the front. His own internal beast ignored this and kept swinging it wildly until he was well inside the giant blue meat grinder of a mouth. Cade could feel the teeth grabbing at the suit’s polysteel exoskeleton. The composite material was strong; but it was not invincible. More failure warnings and alerts began sounding; the light inside the helmet became a mélange of amber and red flashing icons. One of the hard suit panels on his thigh began to fail, and the crushing pressure shot intense pain through his body. It might be the Saraph chewing him up or just the enormous water pressure alone doing most of the damage. Either way, Cade felt the leg beginning to tear away from his body.