Doom 3™: Worlds on Fire

by Matthew Costello

  Kelliher had turned off the screen. He heard Swann take a breath.

  “Yeah, I know—strong stuff. And whatever that thing was, whatever happened to it due to Betruger’s experiments, stands in the way of the promise of teleportation.”

  “Ian, Dr. Betruger knows that, he—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I bet he does. And I bet he has his theories as well. But from my source inside, that’s all he has. Some vague ideas about molecular distortions, genetic recombination. All sounds pretty impressive, except it means he doesn’t have a clue.”

  “There are liabilities here, sir.”

  Kelliher rolled his eyes at Swann’s words. “God, don’t you think I know that? Ofcourse, there are liabilities. I didn’t build this entire city for Betruger to cook up genetic mutations, if that’s what the hell they are. But he’s not an idiot. He knows what this is all about. He’ll want to solve the problem.”

  Here Kelliher looked at Swann and Campbell. He could see from their expressions that his counselor and head of security were suddenly worried that he might tell Hayden something that—as of now—no one on Mars knew.Do they think I’m that stupid? “Betruger wants what I want. But his work, this place, needs to be monitored, General. Closely monitored.”

  “And I am, Ian, I—”

  “Of course. But remember I have someone in the lab who will continue sending me updates directly. And these two—”

  He nodded to Swann and Campbell.

  “—will be, as I said, coming up here regularly. I expect they will get your full cooperation. In addition to the results from Delta, I want updates on the construction progress in general, where things are ahead of schedule, where things are behind. And Site 3? That holds a great personal interest…for obvious reasons.”

  “I’ll see that you get all that.”

  “And see too that Swann and Campbell get it whenever they are here. Free rein. Complete access. Then maybe I can stay on Earth running things…”For as long as I plan on being on Earth.

  “I understand,” Hayden said tightly. Not a man used to taking orders, Kelliher knew. And he imagined some people would get their ass kicked as soon as he left, just to balance the forces of the universe.

  “Great. Then we are—for now—done here. Onward with Mars City. To the future.”

  The men stood up. Kelliher hit a button and the windows of the conference room became clear, the bustling activity in the admin area suddenly visible, temporarily banishing the horrors they had all just witnessed.

  12

  TEREKSTAN BORDER

  AS IF SOMEONE SUDDENLY THREW A SWITCH, THEbarrage that had been steadily streaking from Terekstan just ended. Kane thought that the pursuit had been half-hearted anyway. Once they had crossed the bridge, the possibility of a nasty little trap had disappeared. And no air support ever arrived for them…

  That was the interesting part. Would have been a quick way to take them out—a few heavily armored Russian fighters could have made short work of Kane and his escaping company. So somehow, and from somewhere, an order had gone out. No air support, no firing missiles and plasma rockets at the escaping marines.

  Not part of the deal, Kane imagined. The Russians get Terekstan and their oil. And once Kane and his troops were out of the bear trap, they were free to go, across the border and to safety.

  Kane could see hills ahead, shadowy on this overcast night, no glow of moonlight to show what might lay behind. He sat on top of the surviving AAV and turned back to Gonzales. “Anything yet?”

  “No, Lieutenant, still all dead, and—wait a second…Yes, we got it now. Sat links logging in, and now, yes, we got a full comm signal. They lifted it, Lieutenant. They lifted the blackout.”

  Just as Kane thought they would. He had disobeyed orders but was now in safe territory, a U.S. ally.Now they have to talk to us.

  Kane decided to initiate the conversation. He hit the comm button on his PDA. It flashed red, then green. A small screen appeared as it scanned for a signal, and bingo, he was once again linked into the massive communications network of the U.S. Department of Defense.

  “Lieutenant John Kane, commander of Mustang Company, reporting in.”

  Nothing for a second. Then a voice, just a radio operator, but tentative, careful. “Lieutenant Kane, we have your position. Proceed in your current vector for 3 point 2 klicks. Then you will come to full stop there, Lieutenant—and wait.”

  Funny. We break into a town, save another marine company, lose a lot of good men, some maybe because they pulled the plug on all our data feeds. Now they’ll talk.Nowthey’ll fucking communicate.

  “Copy that.”

  He knew the AAV driver already had a map and course dumped into her onboard drives. They could actually sit back and let the New Pentagon steer them to the location. And just wait there? For what?

  Kane shook his head. He wished Chadbourne was here. Be good to have him to talk to. The rest of the company—well, he didn’t have any personal relationship with them. He was the lieutenant—merely there to give the orders. No friendships blossoming here.

  So he was left alone with his thoughts about what was ahead now…just 2 point 6 klicks ahead…2 point 5.

  But he could well imagine.

  Kane jumped off the AAV and stood on a flat area, a desolate plain filled with scraggly trees and dotted with clumps of bushes.

  A bad thought occurred to him:We’re sitting ducks here. If something was going to happen, one couldn’t ask for a better ambush site. But no—there couldn’t be any ambush planned. Not if they were back on SatLink. The whole world could watch whatever went down here. Unlike the sacrifice in the city that the honchos at the New Pentagon had wanted.

  “Lieutenant, order your troops to stand down.”

  Kane nodded. No point having them attempting to look like a fighting army. And most of them didn’t have a clue that what they had done wasn’t about to be viewed as heroic or patriotic. That it was, in fact, a violation of a direct order. They’d learn soon enough.

  “Lieutenant Kane, we will be rendezvousing with you in t-minus-60 seconds.”

  “Roger that.”

  And yes, now he heard the engines. Heavy-duty battle choppers, coming from the southeast. A lot of them, from the growing noise.

  The marines, who had been sitting on the ground, quickly stood up.Easy, Kane thought.Just some of our own guys coming to take us home. Most of us, anyway.

  Then the air above this low depression became ringed by the giant choppers, their tungsten lamps making it daylight. The marines on the ground covered their eyes.

  Come on,Kane thought.Back the hell off. Turn off the damn light show. These poor bastards have just fought their way out of hell.

  Kane watched as the massive choppers fired burners that turned them immediately vertical and then, like giant solemn totems, they lowered themselves to the ground.

  One of his marines came up to Kane. “Lieutenant, should we do anything?”

  “Yeah,” Kane said. “Watch. Should be an interesting show.”

  The choppers came to rest girding the company. Kane hadn’t done a lot of time in them, but he knew that each interior could pivot on its own gimbal system so that whatever force was inside could be quickly disgorged. Each chopper could hold nearly a company, plus a few attack vehicles, all ready to erupt from the chopper’s belly in a heartbeat.

  Which was exactly what happened.

  With perfect timing, on someone’s command, the choppers’ doors flew open and marines streamed out. Fresh, unmarred from any battle. A few small armored vehicles rolled out of a pair of the choppers.

  But mostly it was just marines. They fell into formation.

  Kane heard a voice in his ear. “Lieutenant Kane, this is Captain Patel. Order your men to fall in and await orders from my lieutenants.”

  Lieutenants? Guess I’m about to be relieved.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Lieutenant, you will deliver your sidearms to Lieutenant Carp when he reaches your
position. You will then be placed under military arrest.”

  Kane could already see the newly arrived troops encircling his marines, while lieutenants barked orders.Careful here, Kane thought. His company and the one he rescued had been through a lot. Best not to overdo the gung-ho. He watched one group of marines—some of those who had been trapped inside the city—being marched toward one of the choppers.

  “Lieutenant?” Kane turned to face another marine lieutenant who was looking at him, flanked by three soldiers, guns at the ready.

  Kane glanced from the lieutenant to the accompanying soldiers, weapons ready.

  “What do you think I’m going to do? Run? Fight?”

  “Sorry, Lieutenant, but you must turn over your sidearm to me now.” Kane nodded. Not unexpected.

  Military arrest. Then some months down the road, court-martial, then what? A cell in some bugfuck part of the U.S., maybe in the dust bowl? With crops a thing of the past, they needed the business.

  “I understand,” Kane said. He smiled at the lieutenant, whose eyes seemed wide, worried.What the hell did they tell him about me? Watch out, he might snap, might go for his weapon. Maybe they’d like that.

  Kane gestured at the shoulder strap for his machine gun and at the holder for his pistol. “You mind?”

  The lieutenant shook his head. “Best you let my men remove the weapon.”

  “Right. Sounds good to me too.”

  The young lieutenant nodded, and the three soldiers came over to Kane, their eyes on his as they removed first his machine gun, then his pistols, then began unclipping his thermite grenades from his vest. Until all his weapons were gone.

  I’m nice and safe now,Kane thought.How much time will I get? Refusing a direct order in time of war. With war constant now, the military was on a permanent war footing. Couldn’t be sure, but had to be a long fucking time.

  “Lieutenant Kane, pursuant to the Articles of War and the 2126 Military Council Ruling, you will be put under military arrest and remanded back to the United States for court-martial.”

  “The charge?” Kane said. He knew damn well what the charge was. But he wanted to hear this spiffy lieutenant say the word.

  “Direct disobedience of an order while in combat.”

  Kane smiled. He had disobeyed the order and saved twenty, thirty good marines.

  “Yup, that’s what it was, Lieutenant. I’m ready to go when you are.”

  But his captor wasn’t done. “One more thing—” The lieutenant nodded to one of the marines with him, and the man grabbed Kane’s wrist.

  He pulled Kane’s arms behind his back, while another guard placed cuffs on him. A beep signaled that the digital lock on the cuffs was closed. Only one thing could get Kane out of those cuffs—a code.

  He noticed some of his own company looking back at the brightly lit scene.See, we’re about to screw one of our own. Just for you…

  Kane thought that now the show might be over. But the lieutenant walked close and ripped the silver bars from his shoulder.

  “You won’t be needing these anymore, Kane.”

  Then the guards forcibly turned Kane around and steered him in the direction of a waiting chopper. An empty one, it appeared. Under orders, he imagined, to take the war criminal directly back to the States…and to face his fate.

  13

  MARS CITY—LEAVING ADMIN

  THE GENERAL CAME OUT OF THE CONFERENCEroom first, nodding to Moraetes. Their orders, she knew, were to accompany the party to Reception and on to the main embarkation area.

  God, then maybe she could ditch Rodriguez and his nonstop chatter for a bit. If Mars was a place for her to advance, she was pretty sure that it was not by assignments like this, with an idiot like him.

  She fell behind the four men making their way to the shuttle that would bring them back to the orbiting carrier and their ride home.

  The men moved slowly, so Maria kept her steps small.And what are we doing here ? she wondered.Guarding them? An escort. Seemed kind of odd, when they could just walk from Admin over to the shuttle. What could happen?

  She saw one of the men turn and look at her. He had the face and build of someone who had done some military time, and clearly had risen through the ranks.

  He stared at Maria. Giving her the once-over. Most men would expect a woman, even a space marine, to turn away.

  But this guy (she caught a bit of his name tag on his UAC uniform:Camp —) yeah, this guy didn’t know Maria’s history, her background. Why she was here and why maybe even Mars wasn’t far enough to get away. And her bold stare right back at him made him turn away.

  Private James Walker had walked around one corner, then turned left, retracing his steps. He kept his eyes straight ahead, walking slowly and steadily. So that if anyone saw him, they wouldn’t thinkanything.

  His right hand brushed his holstered pistol as he walked. Just the casual back and forth motion of an arm as you walked. Nothing odd about that. Nothing anyone might notice. Save for the fact that the holster was unbuckled. Nobody would see that.

  And now Walker moved into Reception. He didn’t look at the two people at the desk, acting as if Mars City was some kind of tourist destination. Two armed guards stood to either side of the desk. Any one of them could ask what he was doing.Hey, where you going, Private? Have clearance for this area?

  Because that was the interesting thing. You needed clearance to move from one area to another in Mars City. And there were dozens of clearance levels.

  As soon as Walker entered the reception area, he was completely out of his clearance area. A few things would now happen very rapidly.

  The sensors throughout Mars City would search for a chip embedded somewhere inside his body and recheck his clearance. The system would then begin the first stage of a security process—Private James Walker is not in an area where he has clearance.Then the system would check all outstanding orders entered by any outstanding superior on Mars—civilian or military—who may have ordered Walker to go somewhere, do something in a place he had no business in.

  That would turn up negative.

  At that point—and Walker was not too sure about this part—an alarm of some kind would be issued. Not an emergency lockdown, because casual orders were given all the time, updated via PDAs that fed into whatever computer net handled the commands.

  So before a full alarm could be issued, a quick request would go out first to Walker, enquiring what he was doing. Who ordered him to come to this place?

  Simultaneously, another request would go out to anyone who had supervisory contact with Walker. Had an order been given and not entered?

  All this—happening now, so fast. No matter. Walker had waited in the cafeteria, watching. Any alarm would arrive too late.

  He turned toward the embarkation area. Where the doors—of course—did not open. No security clearance, and every invisible scan looking at him noted that not only could he not pass through the doors, but he shouldn’t even be standing near them.

  Walker turned to the right, toward a small alcove with a control board monitoring the environmental status of this section of Mars City. He walked up to it, touched his earpiece as if getting a message. He nodded.

  No one could really see him here. But if they did, they’d see a marine nodding, listening, perhaps getting orders.

  He heard steps. Voices. They were here. His hand went to his gun.

  “Just as soon as we get back to Earth, my office will coordinate Swann’s and Campbell’s schedules with you, General,” Kelliher said to Hayden.

  “Whenever they want to come—”

  “It’ll be more formal than that. I want detailed reports from them. Pictures. Interviews. As if I’m here.”

  Hayden nodded. “I understand.”

  Kelliher imagined that Hayden couldn’t wait until Kelliher and his two men were gone. And then, pity the poor marines who got in his way. Asses would be chewed up and spit out.

  “Dr. Betruger—what information should he—”<
br />
  “Minimal. He’ll know that I have my counselor and security people here. And he knows of my interests. But he doesn’t need to know…just how much I am keeping tabs on him…and—”

  They had walked past Reception, down the wide corridor leading to one of the embarkation portals, this one used by guests and VIPs primarily.

  Something made Kelliher slow down. Instinct. Something that had guided him for many years.

  Slow now, but he didn’t stop. Until they were at the doors, the scanner reading their clearance, recording thermal scans, making sure they were allowed to enter the massive hangar that led to the shuttle, and home.Home for now, Kelliher thought.

  Something to the left caught his eye. A control board filled with colored lights, and someone standing there. A marine.

  Instinct…

  Kelliher looked at the twin doors swinging wide open. His personal PDA buzzed in his pocket. A low tone filled the room. An alarm. No screeching high-pitched noise. Alarms went off frequently up here. But this one—a low thumping noise like a heartbeat filled the room with a dull throbbing.

  The doors opened. But the soldier was in motion. Kelliher saw quite clearly that the man had his gun out.

  For a second Kelliher debated: dash through the open doors, or turn back. A few seconds of indecision. But enough for the soldier, his gun raised high, to be on him, the barrel tucked neatly under Kelliher’s chin. And then the voice, a small, hoarse voice, empty of anything.

  “Keep moving, Mr. Kelliher. Keep moving to the shuttle.”

  Maria immediately lowered her rifle, as did Rodriguez.

  She also spotted that one of the other men—Campbell—had quickly gotten a gun out. But the marine—not anyone Maria had seen before—also saw their weapons.

  “Put them down! Put them the hell down now or he gets it.”

  Kelliher looked at them all. “Do as he says.Now. ”