by Dirk Patton
“So?” Rachel asked, prompting me to answer her earlier question.
“I still don’t know,” I said, sighing. “The Russians are patrolling the whole west coast to keep the Navy bottled up in Hawaii. There’s no way they can pick us up.”
“There has to be a way,” Rachel said, staring at me.
“Not without the Navy’s help,” I said. “It’s a damn long way and a whole lot of ocean between here and there. Besides, even if we could get there, the Aussies are protecting the Russians.”
“Then you need to figure something out,” Rachel said. “You always come up with something.”
I looked at her for a long moment, then put my fork down. There was still some food on the plate, and I put it on the floor for Dog. His eyes flicked down as his nose twitched, but he didn’t start eating. He didn’t trust Nicole. Rubbing his head, I spoke softly in his ear, reassuring him. After a long pause, he slowly lowered his head and devoured the remnants of my meal.
“You’re the resident genius,” Rachel said, turning to Nicole. “Can’t you come up with a way to get us there?”
Nicole looked at her, a flicker of resentment passing across her face before she answered.
“It doesn’t matter how smart you are. There’s only so many ways to make the trip, and as the Major pointed out, none of those are viable options.”
Rachel stared back at her, then turned to me. For the first time, I realized how exhausted she was. Her eyes were puffy with dark circles bruising the skin beneath them. She was drawn and looked like she’d reached that point where even your hair hurts. She needed sleep.
And, so did I. After the food, my body was telling me it was time to shut down for a while. But, I was afraid to sleep. I feared the dreams that I knew would come. The loss of Katie had done more to me than the infected or the Russians ever could have. However, I knew my body needed to rest. To recover. How else was I going to be able to avenge my wife once the opportunity finally presented itself?
“Let’s talk about this tomorrow,” I said, standing and collecting my weapons.
Nicole and Gonzales nodded, staying where they were. Rachel stood, her and Dog following me out into the hall.
“Do you want to be alone?” She asked as we headed for the sleeping quarters.
“No,” I said after a long beat.
She took my hand and led me to the room she was using. There was nothing special about it other than it had two single bunks. While I piled my arsenal in the corner and took my boots off, she pushed them together and spread blankets.
Rachel turned the lights off, and we lay down, holding hands across the gap where they didn’t quite meet. Dog curled up on the floor, between us and the door, grunting as he got himself into a comfortable position.
I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep. Expected this to be a frustrating exercise in futility. Planned to wait until Rachel drifted off, then take Dog and go back outside to hunt some more infected. But, as usual, my plan didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.
Within minutes, Rachel was breathing slowly and softly. Sound asleep. Soon, Dog was snoring. I stared at the ceiling in the nearly perfect darkness, the only illumination coming from a faint light in the hall that leaked under the door. Several times I told myself to get up and put my boots on, but my body didn’t cooperate. I went to sleep.
3
I was alone when I woke. Rachel and Dog had gotten up at some point and left the room. With no watch or clock, I had no idea what time it was and didn’t really give a shit. I was content just to lay there for a while, staring at the ceiling and thinking.
Somehow, I’d made it through the night without dreaming about Katie. Well, at least if I did, I didn’t remember having a dream. Now, I let my mind drift. Remembered our life together. Our dreams and hopes. The plans we’d made for the future. A future that would never come.
Then I thought about the reason that future would never happen. Not just for me, but for billions of other people on the planet that had died because of a madman in the Kremlin. All of the pain and loss that had been visited on the world in the past few months could be laid squarely on his doorstep.
Anger surged through me, both for my loss and the evil that had been unleashed on humanity. And now, the fucker directly responsible was sitting somewhere in Australia, living a life of luxury. Somehow, I was going to make the journey. Creep into his bedroom late at night and make him experience true terror.
The need for vengeance was invigorating, and I threw the thin blanket off and sat up. And got a whiff of myself. I was ripe. Well, maybe ripe didn’t do justice to the smell coming off my body and clothing. The first order of business was to get clean.
Taking only a rifle and pistol, I grabbed my boots and headed out in search of clean clothes and a shower. Wandering down the hallway, I stuck my head into the cafeteria and spotted Nicole and Gonzales huddled at a table, talking in low voices. Her hand was on top of his, and he quickly pulled it away when he became aware of my presence.
“Relax, Master Chief,” I said, smiling. “And, tell me where to find some clean clothes and the showers.”
“Better I show you, sir.”
He stood and stepped into the hallway, leading me in a direction I hadn’t been.
“Sorry about what you saw, sir. I know it’s not exactly…”
“Knock it off,” I grumbled. “The world where you aren’t supposed to fraternize like that is long dead. If you two want to be together, well then be together. And if your LT gives you any shit, come find me.”
“Actually, sir,” Gonzales chuckled. “He warned me about you.”
“Me? Why the hell is he worried about me?”
“Just doesn’t know you, sir. That’s all. That, and from what we’ve heard you’re pretty tight with Admiral Packard.”
“Don’t know if pretty tight is the right way to characterize it,” I said as we entered a new hallway. “Never met the man. Only ever talked to him on the phone. There’s just been a lot of shit I’ve been involved in that has been on his radar. Regardless, you do what your heart tells you. Before it’s too late.”
We reached a door marked Quartermaster, and he turned to face me. Held my eyes for a moment before nodding.
“Heard from a few of the Rangers that you were OK. Glad they weren’t shining me on.”
“I’m a gold-plated asshole,” I grinned. “But I was an NCO, not an officer. I’ve got bigger things to worry about than who you’re romancing.”
He grinned back at me and nodded.
“Good supply of Air Force issue inside,” he said, gesturing at the door. “Showers are about five doors down on your left.”
“Thanks, Master Chief.”
He nodded and walked away, heading back to the cafeteria with a spring in his step. I pushed through and turned on the lights. Stepping around a counter, I saw row upon row of steel shelving, loaded down with neatly folded and cataloged uniforms. Clean clothes in hand, I snagged a hygiene kit sealed in plastic and headed for the showers.
Opening the door, I was greeted with a billow of steam and the sound of running water. Putting my weapons on a bench, I stripped out of the offending garments that were stiff with blood and sweat. Picking up the towel, I stepped around the wall that divided the showers from the dressing area and came to an abrupt stop.
Irina stood under the closest shower, rinsing soap from her body. She was turned away from me and hadn’t heard me enter over the sound of the water. I quickly retreated, wrapped the towel around my waist and pulled the door open to check. Yep. I was in the showers designated for men. Softly closing the door, I began gathering my clothes and weapons, intending to make a strategic retreat before she knew I’d inadvertently invaded her privacy.
Before I had everything in my arms, the water shut off, and Irina stepped around the wall. She came to a surprised stop with a sharp intake of breath when she saw me, arms automatically covering her breasts.
“Sorry,” I said, turning away an
d snatching up the last piece of my clothing.
“It is OK,” she said.
I could tell from the sound that she had ducked back around the wall into the shower area. I was reaching for the door when she spoke again.
“Can you please hand me a towel?”
I paused, wanting to get the hell out of there. Yes, Irina is a beautiful woman, but the whole situation made me really uncomfortable.
Glancing around, I saw a stack of fresh, white towels. Picking one off the top, I edged up to the wall and held it around the corner. Irina took it from my hand and a moment later stepped back into view with it wrapped around her torso. The lower edge ended only a few inches below her hips.
“I am sorry,” she said, appearing more composed with her nudity covered. “The showers for women do not have good pressure. I did not think anyone would be coming along.”
She stepped around me and quickly disappeared through the door. I caught a flash of her ass as she moved, and all it did was make me think of Katie. I peeked around the wall to make sure I was alone, then dumped my stuff back on the bench and tossed the towel over a rack.
Nearly half an hour later I was clean and freshly shaven. Turning the water off, I stepped into the dressing area and came face to face with Rachel, holding a towel for me.
“Can’t you women read?” I asked sarcastically. “It says, MEN. Right there on the goddamn door!”
I snatched the towel and wrapped it around my waist.
“Irina said you were in here.”
“Yeah, well, she shouldn’t have been in here, either,” I groused.
Moving to the sink, I loaded a toothbrush with paste and began brushing my teeth. Rachel came to stand next to me, leaning her hip on the counter.
“Feel better?” She asked with a small grin.
“I’d feel better if I could take a shower without participating in a peep show,” I mumbled around the brush.
“Suck it up,” she said. Then, “You’re going to be interested in what we found.”
I turned to look at her, then had to spit toothpaste into the sink.
“What?”
“No one’s sure,” she said, still grinning.
That got my attention. Despite everything that had been going on, it hadn’t failed to register on me that this was Area 51. If even a fraction of the conspiracy theories were right, there had to be some pretty fantastic things hidden in the massive, underground facility.
“If you tell me they found aliens,” I stopped to spit again and rinse my mouth. “I’m going to take your rifle away before you hurt yourself or someone else.”
“I’d like to see you try,” she said.
With a smile, she stepped away and moved her slung rifle behind her back and put her fists on her hips. Despite myself, I laughed.
“OK, tell me,” I said, turning to face her.
“Un-uh. You’ve gotta see this.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said under my breath. “Fine. Get the hell out and let me get dressed. I’ll be right there.”
Rachel stuck her tongue out, then left the room. Shaking my head, I stripped the towel off and pulled on my new clothes.
4
Rachel had waited outside the showers for me, leading me to where Irina and Dog were having a meal. When we walked in, Irina looked up, then quickly away, a slight blush coloring her pale cheeks. Despite myself, I smiled. If she was embarrassed, it was her own fault. Rachel appeared to be struggling to contain some sarcastic remark, and I chose to ignore her.
It took us nearly fifteen minutes to make it from the cafeteria to a cavernous hangar built into the side of a nearby mountain. We’d descended deep underground, then climbed aboard an electric golf cart. Irina drove, navigating a confusing maze of tunnels that seemed to go on forever.
As we progressed, we passed countless doors that were marked with only a number. They were high-security slabs of chromed steel, not unlike the vault doors from Los Alamos where I’d first met Irina.
“Johnson had any luck with these?” I asked.
Long and Johnson had decided to stay behind with me, rather than evacuating to Hawaii with Colonel Blanchard. I hadn’t asked them why. They’d made the choice, and I was happy to have them around.
“He’s been able to open every door he’s tried,” Rachel answered. “There’s just so many of them, and we’ve not been able to find anything to tell us which ones might contain something we can make use of.”
“What have you found?”
“Very little we can make sense of,” Irina said as she turned into a new tunnel. “Some Chinese and Russian tech that was being disassembled and inspected. That was pretty straightforward. Most of the rest is projects in various stages of completion, and no one can understand what they are supposed to do.”
“Except the thing you’re taking me to see?”
“Except that,” she smiled.
“And, it is?”
“Something the GRU heard rumors was in development, but we were never able to confirm,” Irina said. “Now, be patient. It is better if you see, rather than I try to explain.”
I looked at her, then Rachel, but neither was giving anything away. Frankly, I was struggling not to get irritated with them. I don’t like surprises.
Finally, we rolled through a broad opening at the end of a tunnel into a hangar large enough to easily hold a pair of 747s, with room to spare. Irina braked to a stop, and I stared in awe at an impossibly large aircraft. At least, that’s what I thought it was.
Stepping out of the golf cart, I looked up at the skin of the craft, amazed when it changed color to match the difference in its background as I walked around it. I stopped, then reversed course, confirming my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. As the walls of the room behind it changed color and texture, the skin of the machine matched them, rendering it all but invisible.
“Watch this!”
I looked around at the shout to see Long with his hand on a large electrical lever. He pulled it down and brilliant lights set into the ceiling, far overhead, came to life. Suddenly, the entire aircraft became visible, and it was huge. Easily as long as a 747, it was wedge shaped with a sharp nose and blunt tail. Twin rudders stuck up from above and beneath the back, rectangular exhaust ports for the engines filling the entire rear surface.
“What the hell is it?” I asked.
“If it is what we heard of, and I am fairly certain it is,” Irina began, then paused.
“What?”
“A hypersonic transport with adaptive camouflage. Faster than anything in the air, and invisible to both radar and visual sighting.”
I turned to look at her. She’d gotten over her embarrassment and stared back at me.
“I am serious,” she said after a pause. “Russia and China were both working on this, as were the Europeans. If it flies, it would seem you beat all of us.”
“I don’t get it,” Rachel said. “I thought it was just a stealth jet.”
“It is,” Irina answered. “Only so much more. Imagine being able to go from New York to London in twenty minutes. And doing it in an aircraft that can’t be detected or tracked. Or even seen.”
“But we can see it,” Rachel protested.
“Because of the specialty lighting,” Irina said. “In a blue sky with only sunlight and maybe some clouds below? It would be invisible to the human eye.”
I walked forward and reached up to touch the skin of the plane. It was cold and smooth, an unsettling difference from how it appeared. I was amazed when the surface around where my hand was in contact changed color to match my skin.
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “Does it fly?”
“No idea,” Irina said. “That is the one skill that none of us possess.”
“Then why are you so excited about it?”
“Just think,” Irina said. “If we can get Hawaii to send us a pilot, and this flies, we could make the trip to Australia in about ninety minutes!”
I stood there staring at the ama
zing airplane. The last time I’d gone to Australia, it had been a grueling, thirteen-hour flight from Los Angeles.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked.
Irina shook her head.
“Russia and China have already reached the speeds needed to record those types of travel times. But, only ever with unmanned, experimental aircraft. It appears this is well beyond experimental. There is a cockpit with controls. Seats for pilots. Seats in the back, as well as provisions for transporting heavy equipment.”
“There’s a whole equipment bay,” Long said, walking up to stand next to me. “Easily room for a couple of Bradleys, and there’s enough seating for an entire platoon. If she’s right about this thing, that brings a whole new meaning to Rapid Deployment Force.”
He grinned and reached up to touch the aircraft. The spot where his hand came in contact also quickly changed to match his skin color.
“Anyone talked to Hawaii about getting a pilot here?” I asked, stepping back and looking down the length of the wedge.
“Thought I’d leave that for you. Figured you could get directly through to the old man.”
Lieutenant Sam appeared from around the far side of a large set of tires supporting the landing gear. I thought about what he said for a moment, then nodded.
“So, where’s the comm room in this place?”
We borrowed the cart and headed back into the facility. Rachel and Dog stayed with Irina, both of them playing with the chameleon-like skin covering the plane.
“The Master Chief said he had a conversation with you,” Sam said as he drove.
I didn’t know him and didn’t know where he might be going with this, so all I did was nod. Sam glanced at me when he realized I wasn’t going to say anything.
“He’s a good man. Doesn’t need to get his ass in a crack over fraternizing.”
So, he was worried about his man. He just went up a couple of notches in my book.
“Don’t know about the Navy, Lieutenant, but I can’t think of any Army regs that would prevent him from becoming involved with a civilian, even if she is someone you rescued.”
