---
In his room, Adamarus opened the small refrigerator and made a drink but discovered that there was no ice. He grabbed the ice bucket and walked into the hall. The ice machine was just on the other side of Evelyn’s room. Adamarus walked by Evelyn’s door glancing at it, wanting to knock but proceeded to the sign that said ice. While he filled the bucket, he half noticed the emergency exit…this one leading out into the tri-shell itself. It was doubtful that the hatch had ever been opened.
He could knock on her door and…offer her some ice?
As he turned and started walking back down the hall, he found himself humming a tune…what was it? Then it came to him. It was the theme song for his son’s favorite cartoon show, Swing Fist, Secret Agent. He smiled as he passed her door and just went back to his own room.
For over an hour, he sat on the balcony staring at the lights of Uptown while downing drinks. Evelyn’s balcony was across from him at a forty-five-degree angle and despite himself, he prayed she’d come out…while at the same time, hoping she wouldn’t.
Finally, he got up and stumbled inside. He got into the shower, realizing he’d had one too many. He turned off the light then opened the drawer and groped for a pair of shorts…he grabbed a pair of pants instead but didn’t care. He staggered to the bed and without putting them on fell onto the covers.
Oh crap…wakeup call. He was too tired and drunk. He used an old trick that, so far, hadn’t failed him—he tapped himself on the forehead six times (6:00) and then let himself drift off.
---
1:00 AM, the Rockford Weapons Research Facility…
The night was still and quiet. A warm wind blew from the West. The black van turned off its lights and pulled off the highway onto a dirt road that led off into the darkness. Two men hopped out and planted motion sensors so they’d be warned if anyone else pulled onto the dirt road. Then they got back in and the van proceeded for half a mile down the dirt road to the base of a hill where they stopped and killed the engine.
The van carried eight members of Striker One who were dressed in black and had black paint on their faces. They all carried machine guns, night vision goggles and headsets to stay in contact.
The side door opened then the two front doors and all eight of the men jumped out. Two scrambled up the hill while the others went to the back and started unloading equipment.
The two at the top of the hill used night-scope binoculars to survey the target. The hill sloped down to a 30-foot stretch of flat ground. This ended at a 20- foot chain link fence topped with barbwire. Beyond that was a large parking lot, then a landing area for helicopters, shuttles and a Loud landing craft. All were empty. Beyond stood two large buildings, each identical, each ten stories and made of glass.
Returning their attention to the chain link fence, the two scouts noted the rotating security cameras mounted every 50 feet, but could see no other security devices. They had known that security was light. They scrambled down to the base of the hill and scanned the flat area leading to the fence with sensors, then set off a device, which caused a thin transparent cloud to float out over the flat ground. They could detect no ground sensors or lasers.
They returned to the van where they joined the other six that had donned strange looking suits, which completely covered them. They also wore backpacks made of the same odd material as the suits.
They checked each other’s suits and packs then they switched on the suits. The six of them vanished. The chameleon suits blended with the background. It wasn’t perfect—they could be made out when they moved but otherwise, when standing still, they were almost impossible to see.
The six scrambled over the hill and, waiting for the cameras to turn the other way, ran to the fence and knelt. They cut a hole in the chain link and went through.
Meanwhile the other two carried a remote rocket launcher to the top of the hill and set it up. They aimed it right at the center of the landing pad used by the Loud. When they were done, the launcher lay flat on the ground and they covered it with dirt, leaving the business end open. They surveyed their work then returned to the van.
Forty minutes later, the six men in chameleon suits returned. Using special attachments, the fence went back together, the cut unnoticeable from a distance. They returned to the van and left, retrieving the roadside sensors as they pulled out.
About 800 miles away, another team had repeated almost exactly the same steps on another weapons factory, except no rocket launcher had been needed.
---
The Anderson Shipyards…
Six hundred miles above the North Pole, the next target was a bit harder because it was in a vacuum, but it was almost the same process. As the shuttle entered the docking facilities, it dropped off half a dozen men in vacuum suits with equipment packs. The men used the same vacuum suits that Anderson’s maintenance men wore, but it was easy to get past the two cameras they had to pass. Security on the outside of the orbiting shipyards had become almost non-existent.
An hour later, the shuttle picked them up as it left.
---
Amular, Northern Continent…
As Dr. Alex Radford drove through the darkness toward the airport, he felt good. He had his crusade, the money to back it, the will to see it through and a small private army to back him up. Everything was going according to plan. However, he couldn’t bring himself to smile. There was too much going on right now and, personally, this was the hardest part for him. He'd suspected that, sooner rather than later, he would have to leave his world behind and go underground. Well, the time had come.
The small private airport appeared on the left and he pulled into the parking lot and drove to the back as he’d been told to do. He hoped the military transport Whitehall had arranged would be comfortable. He needed to get some sleep. He spotted the numbered hangar he'd been told about and parked. He looked at his watch. It was 1:55 a.m.. He was five minutes early.
He got out and walked to the hangar. Trying the door, he found it opened. Walking in, he saw the small military plane and a man standing by it. He walked forward, then noticed his footsteps were crinkling and looked down. He was walking on a sheet of black plastic that had been spread out on the floor.
“Dr. Radford?”
He looked back up and saw the man who had been standing by the plane had walked forward. He held something small in his hand and he was pointing it at him.
Suddenly Radford smelled something burning. Then, a terrible pain hit him in the center of his chest. His arms and legs cramped and he saw the room rising around him and briefly realized he was falling. Then he never saw or felt anything again.
---
Blain Usher watched Radford fall to the floor. Good, the doctor had landed centered on the plastic sheet he had just laid out. He checked the safety on his Sauntner-Ben Alt-One Laser Handgun, then put it in his pocket. He liked his new toy more and more.
He checked Radford’s pulse; there was none. He then rolled the doctor up in the black plastic and tied the whole thing up with rope. He heaved the rolled bundle into the small twin prop military plane. Finally, he tied a lead weight to the package—there, all ready to go to the bottom of the ocean.
Before lifting off for his short flight over the Eastern Ocean, he looked at his watch. It was 2:10 a.m.. Knowing the general would be up—it was after all a very busy night—he called Whitehall and told him that the deed was done.
Radford had become a ghost. His demands and threats would continue. His army would continue to carry out his attacks. He’d get all the credit and become the most hunted man on Amular, but he would never be caught.
---
5:57 AM, the Rockford Weapons Research Facility…
The Rockford Weapons Research Facility, as well as another company involved in Amular’s defensive buildup, had been chosen by Radford’s movement for the first of Striker One’s six attacks because they fell within the meridian time zone and the Anderson Shipyards, the largest target, maintained merid
ian time.
All attacks had been set for 6:00 a.m. as that was the beginning of the work day almost everywhere.
As hundreds of cars found parking spots and hundreds of employees walked from their cars to the two glass buildings, the Loud Lander came down from the sky. With a thunderous roar, it set down on its landing pad, hissed and went quiet. It was the regular weekly arrival and the employees were all used to it.
A mile away, in the parking lot of a roadside donut shop, sat a black van. In it, the Striker One team watched the scene at the Rockford Weapons Research Facility on a large monitor. The video was being transmitted from the camera mounted on top of the rocket launcher. The men were all drinking coffee and eating donuts as they watched the large landing craft settle on the pad.
One of the men set down his coffee and, glancing at a clock next to the monitor, he flipped up a clear plastic cover that protected a red button. They all watched the scene with great interest, and when the clock read exactly 6:00 a.m., the man pushed the red button.
The camera shook as the rocket shot out from the launcher. They saw the bullet-shaped rocket fly out over the parking lot.
At the same time, multiple explosions erupted within the two glass buildings. They watched as the rocket slammed into the Loud landing craft and then they saw the beginning of the rocket’s explosion. But then, unexpectedly, the feed from the camera turned to static.
The men started to turn toward each other with quizzical looks, but then the Striker One team, as well the van, were vaporized.
No one had ever shot a rocket into a Loud ship before so no one knew that doing so would cause the ship’s grav-drive to explode, nor that that explosion would vaporize everything within a one-and-a-half-mile radius.
---
It was now one of Adamarus’ standard dreams; the Spiral Slayer Blackships were traveling from galaxy to galaxy leaving black smears spreading from each spiral’s center.
Then once again he found himself over the huge gas giant, something that could have been a star but for some reason hadn’t quite made it. Breaking up its thick cloud bands at the equator, a huge red circle rotated. Again he somehow found himself standing on the red spot…again someone was next to him…and once again he could not turn to look but all the same he knew who it was…Evelyn.
He awoke from the dream and glanced over at the clock—it was one minute before 6:00…not bad. He sat up and noticed he’d somehow dragged a pair of pants to bed with him. He grabbed them then he bent down and groped for his other clothes on the floor beside the bed. Luckily, he was on the opposite side of the bed from the windows and glass patio doors when the explosion hit.
The blast blew in the room’s outer wall, windows and sliding glass door. It happened so fast that before any of the debris could reach him, the bed flipped up on its side, catching him in the center of the mattress and flinging him against the far wall, the bed thankfully between him and the blast wave, heat and flying debris.
His ears were ringing and his head spun. The mattress was falling over on him so he pushed the upturned bed away and was shocked when it fell and dropped down several stories.
He was sprawled on a five-foot ledge. Gale-force wind hit him and he knew that this was an atmospheric blowout. He stood unsteadily and that’s when he noticed that he had a large wooden splinter protruding from his thigh and also…that he was completely naked. Looking down he saw the pants on the ledge and grabbed them. Carefully he made his way along the ledge to the door, which had been blown away, and into what must be the hallway, though it looked nothing like it.
He steeled himself and, with a grunt of pain, pulled the large splinter of wood from his leg. The wound was bleeding freely but all he could do for now was slip on the pants over it.
Evelyn!
He started moving in the direction of her room. He came to an abrupt halt. Before him was a naked lady…she was impaled on a large board, obviously dead. He worked his way around the body, which was hard as the wind was quickly gaining force. He saw Evelyn’s door—it was half off its hinges. He rushed to it and knocked it inward. Evelyn was sitting on the floor. She looked at him in a daze.
He reached down and scooped her up. “Are you okay?”
Shaken and stunned, she only nodded.
“I think the chamber’s blown! We’ve got to get to safety!”
She seemed to be walking okay so he guided her back into the hallway and made for the ice machine and the emergency exit. The ice machine had been knocked over covering the exit hatch. He wedged himself between it and the wall and pushed with all he had. It moved a quarter inch.
Evelyn looked more alert now. She was able to open the back of the machine, which allowed the ice to fall out. “Try it now.”
Adamarus did and it moved much easier.
While he did this, Evelyn looked around and noticed that the hotel had crumbled so badly that she could see all the way down to the street. She spotted half-a-dozen people managing to hang on as the wind tried to pull them away. “Adamarus, hurry! Lots of people are in trouble!”
Adamarus had moved the ice machine and opened the emergency hatch. He turned and motioned for her to follow him in then hollered back at her, “We need to make sure this goes somewhere.”
Adamarus entered and Evelyn followed. They were on a catwalk that led across the open chamber to a sealed hatch a dozen feet away.
“We can get them up in here,” she yelled.
Adamarus hollered back, “Let’s see if we have pressure on the other side,” as he ran to the opposite hatch.
“Hurry,” she yelled. She looked back. Through the emergency hatch, she could still see people down in the street barely hanging on. A child lost her grip and was torn away, flying off into the air. Her mother let go to try and follow after her.
A loud boom shook the catwalk just as Adamarus reached the hatch. He checked the control panel. It was good. He turned, “Evelyn, it’s…” She was looking back at him and could not see what was happening to Uptown through the hatch. However, Adamarus did. He saw a flash of white light and then everything he could see was swept away before the emergency hatch automatically slammed shut.
Evelyn only saw the expression on Adamarus’ face and the inside of the chamber flash. At the sound of the hatch slamming closed, she turned and cried, “No!”
She ran back to the hatch and started trying to override the controls to open it.
“No!” Adamarus yelled, as he ran back across the catwalk and grabbed her arms, “No, Evelyn! No! Look…” he forced her to look at the readings on the panel…it said there was just vacuum on the other side. “They’re gone!” he yelled. “Come on, we have to make it into the next level while we have an access hatch…before the level rotates.”
They ran across the catwalk but knew that they were too late as the red light came on and the hatch rotated out of view.
“Oh no…” Evelyn said.
Behind them a steel support popped and bent inward. The steel wall behind it started to break away and the screech of air being sucked out could be heard.
---
6:00 AM, the Anderson Shipyards…
The pilot said, “Anderson control, this is Aurora View Tour Bus 807 requesting space dock approach authorization, over.”
“Aurora View Tour Bus 807, you are cleared for…”
The voice of Anderson Shipyard’s traffic controller was cut off and replaced by static.
Both the pilot and copilot’s eyes went wide as tiny explosions erupted from the side of the huge shipyard. The explosions looked small, but that was only because the tour bus was still three miles away and the shipyard was so large. The entire structure seemed to jump as secondary explosions erupted deeper within the structure. Large chunks of debris flew away within clouds of smaller pieces and escaping atmosphere.
As they stared in disbelief, the entire shipyard slowly began to move away from them. It had been knocked out of its position. Another huge explosion burst from the side and the e
ntire structure began to tilt and turn as it continued to move away.
The pilot muttered, “Oh my God.”
Below, debris was now hitting the upper atmosphere, falling toward the planet. Hundreds of red streaks formed…then thousands. A massive piece—part of the outer hull and some attached internal structure—hit the atmosphere and continued down, trailing massive flames and black smoke. In shock, they watched it until it hit the surface of the snow covered North Pole, sending a massive explosion that radiated outward, obliterating the surface features.
The pilots heard screams coming from the rear where the 120 tourists they had been carrying to the shipyards sat looking in horror out their side view ports. This shook the pilot from his shocked state and he reached for the radio controls and flipped to the emergency channel. He opened his mouth to speak, but then out of the forward view port, he saw that the supply ship that had been in the queue in front of him was being ripped apart and exploding. Then, to his horror, he realized why as it became visible. A huge cloud of debris was hurling at incredible speed directly at him.
---
Adamarus, barefoot with only pants on, stood by Evelyn who was wearing only a sexy black nighty. Around them, the walls and floors shook and smoke filled the air. Another explosion knocked them to the floor and Evelyn screamed. Adamarus grabbed her. The next section had shifted and a hatch had finally rotated into place. “Quickly,” he said while he opened the hatch, pushed them both in and closed it. Then he pushed a red button indicating that the module was occupied.
Almost at once, they could feel the level rotating and the temperature lowered as they moved further away. However, the tri-level hull kept moving—unable to locate a safe inner-section, it started looking for a safe outer-level.
Finally, the system found one with pressure and came to a stop. When it did, Adamarus and Evelyn found themselves in free fall. The hatch opened to the middle level of the tri-shell and they looked into it. The lighting blinked on and off, the air had the smell of burning wires.
“Okay,” Adamarus said, “I don’t like the looks of this section. We’ll pull ourselves across to the outer level hatch using the railing. Let’s move as fast as we can.”
Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2) Page 18
