They’d discovered the reasoning behind the experiments on the primates. It wasn’t good news. Army and general medical surgeons were now grafting 'enhancements' onto live human subjects. What the 'enhancements' were was unclear but from the detailed notes on the initial experiments, they probably included strengthened bones and stronger muscles. A very brief rough draft of a paper called 'Creating a Super Soldier' only exacerbated Murdoch's fears. Where the hell had the Americans gained all this medical science from?
They hadn’t discovered what the black creature was and how it had been captured. Once again this wasn’t good news. The fact that this particular information had been incinerated had Murdoch wondering what had been so top secret that it had been deemed more important than troop numbers and locations, power crystal transport records and supersoldier experiments.
Murdoch wiped his eyes wearily. He needed some sleep but he didn’t want any. He just wanted to keep going and get all possible information found and filed so he could get the heck out of here.
One more document and then he’d go to bed. Just one more. He rooted about on the large desk to pick up something at random and found a large leather bound notebook, obviously a diary. Murdoch flicked through the pages wearily scanning the pages for anything of interest. There was no name on it but it had belonged to someone who had been at the Greenland dig from the descriptions of the various chambers that had been found. This was interesting stuff. One for MI7, the Atlantean and Ancient Anomalies division though. He was just about to close the diary when a name jumped out at him causing him to lose his place. After spending several minutes feverishly trying to find the place again Murdoch was reading a paragraph written on April 23rd 1935. Written in hurried and crabbed script it outlined the discovery of a being called the Core, a fantastical column of shifting light that spoke to everyone through telepathy and told them the history of their planet went back many thousands of years beyond prehistory. From the feverish descriptions Murdoch realised that the Americans had discovered an information source comparable to the Nucleus. The paragraph was littered with superlatives typical of an overexcited American scientist but for once Murdoch resisted snorting with derision. This was seriously bad news.
The discovery of the Nucleus by a team of atlantologists in 1934 was a closely guarded secret, one that was known only to the most senior intelligence officers and a few government ministers. The Nucleus was a fountain of information and had massively aided British research into new and advanced technology. If the Americans had access to the same sort of information then the whole balance of power was changed dramatically.
A knock on the door roused Murdoch from his anxieties.
“Enter,” Murdoch said pushing the diary to the side.
A young well dressed women stepped into the spacious office Murdoch had acquired for himself. The face was familiar to Murdoch but it took a few seconds for him to place it.
“Good evening, Mr Murdoch,” Jane Archer said as she sat down on a well padded chair next to warming fire almost directly opposite Murdoch.
Murdoch caught himself gawping at the audacity of the woman. He hadn’t even offered her a seat! She’d just helped herself! And by jove! She was wearing trousers. Murdoch had heard rumours about women like this but he hadn’t suspected Jane Archer to be one. Mentally, he shrugged. Jane had always been a bit tom boyish.
“When you’ve quite finished gawping Mr Murdoch, I’ll like a cup of tea please. Earl Grey, black, one sugar.”
Despite himself Murdoch found himself making two mugs of Earl Grey while Jane warmed her hands in front of the spitting fire.
Handing Jane a full mug, Murdoch apologised for the lack of china cups.
Waving his apology away with a delicately manicured hand Jane sat back on the comfortable easy chair relaxing as she felt the heat of the tea seep through her frozen body.
“Well, Jane. This is a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see you here. How are things with MI7?”
“Most enjoyable, John. It’s a very interesting time to be part of MI7.”
“I’m sure it is. So ermm… why are you here?”
“Really, John. Do you really think MI7 would give up a chance to examine the body of one of the creatures that Nightshade Division stumbled across on Atlantis?”
“Well, no, but I imagined they would send out someone…well someone a bit more hardy given the conditions out there.” The Ice Base was caught in a nasty blizzard that had, so far, lasted a week and would probably continue for at least another week. The pilot who had flown Jane in was a brave man.
“You mean a man, don’t you?” Jane smiled a smile that took much of the warmth out of the room for Murdoch. “Do I have to remind you that I have a doctorate in biology specialising in zoology? And that I am the best ‘man’ that MI7 could possibly send?”
“No Jane you don’t.” Murdoch remembered a similar conversation he’d had in the past with Jane and he didn’t wish to repeat it. “Do you want to see the creatures now or can it wait?”
“I’m quite capable of handling my own investigation. However as you are current Intelligence Head and the body is stored in a secure area, I need written permission from you.”
Murdoch regretfully got up from his comfortably warm chair and went to his desk. Finding the correct documentation under a wobbling stack of files he signed it with a flourish and handed the two sheets of stapled paper to Jane.
“There you are. That gives you full Top Secret classification on the Ice Base. Don’t abuse it.”
“Me? I’m shocked you could even think I would do such a thing,” Jane smiled sweetly as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “And for goodness sake John, get some sleep. You look half dead.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m just this minute going to sit down for a snooze, while you rampage through my base. Have fun, Jane.”
Jane smiled again as Murdoch sat down on his easy chair and promptly fell into a deep sleep. He was thin, Jane realised. He’d lost a lot of weight since their last encounter. The briefing from MI7 mentioned that John had been in hospital for several days before heading out to this desolate corner of the world. She suspected he had been pushing himself hard as usual and skipping meals. “Stupid man,” she muttered exasperatedly. She would have to have a word with the chef while she was here.
Jane stood in the surgery which she had finally found after being momentarily baffled by the maze of corridors and rooms.
She wore a surgical smock and mask as did the other two members of her team. They waited impatiently, Jane fiddling with the various surgical scalpels and saws checking they were sharp and clean.
Shortly, they heard a trolley trundling down a concrete corridor from the freezer where it had been stored. Jane hissed in irritation as it appeared. The body had been hastily wrapped up in a sheet with its internal organs displayed on open metal trays.
Jane dismissed the orderly and aided Sarah and Jacob in lifting the body onto the hard flat surgical table. It was surprisingly light for its size but it was awkward to handle.
Lifting the sheet off, Jane gasped in surprise in perfect harmony with Sarah and Jacob.
“It’s a dinosaur!” Jacob could barely contain himself, eyes wide as saucers.
“It certainly seems to be,” said Jane. She’d seen drawings and skeletons of dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum in London. This creature lying on the surgical table was a much smaller version of the great Tyrannosaurs she’d seen being around eight feet from nose to tail but its legs and arms were more in proportion with the rest of its body compared to the weak and useless forearms of the Tyrannosaur. And it had very obviously not been dead for 65 million years as could be construed from the stench arising from the thawing flesh.
“It’s a type of velociraptor!” breathed Jacob as he took over the examination quickly taking measurements and writing them down in a notebook. “Look at the sickle claws on its feet,” he said pointing to the appendages in question.
“
What happened to its eyes?” asked Sarah. “There are no eye sockets at all,” she quickly added as she pressed and prodded the skull.
“I think the question we should be asking is what a dinosaur is doing alive in this day and age,” Jane said. “This creature is matches the description of those that attacked a squad of Nightshade Division a few months back. And also, what is it doing here on an American base?”
Jane left the questions unanswered. Jacob and Sarah busied themselves dissecting the remains of the body, Jacob cheerfully whistling to himself as he deftly sliced the mouldering flesh away with his scalpel.
So this is what caused Nightshade so many problems, Jane though to herself. The velociraptor was a vicious looking creature but Jane still found herself surprised that the power armoured Nightshade soldiers struggled to deal with it. It didn’t look particularly strong.
Jacob’s scalpel blade snapped.
“For heaven’s sake,” muttered Jacob as he reached for another scalpel.
Once again Jacob tried to slice in to the muscle tissue exposed in the velociraptor’s leg. He grunted has he applied more and more force with no apparent effect.
Exasperated he ran the scalpel across his thumb. “Blunt! These scalpels are meant to be brand new and they’re blunt…..” He gasped as blood flowed freely from deep cut in his thumb.
“But the scalpel wouldn’t cut the muscle! It didn’t even mark it!”
“Go and get that cut seen to,” Jane ordered. “Make sure it’s disinfected.”
As Jacob left the surgery, Jane angled the overhanging light so it shone directly on the muscle. It looked normal enough. The muscle was relatively healthy looking with many thick strands of purplish sinew connecting the hip to the knee.
Jane prodded it with a scalpel and then tried to slice it. The sharp blade didn’t even mark it. She picked up a bone saw and pulled the blade across the muscle. Nothing. Jane pressed harder and harder as she attempted to saw into the muscle. Eventually she gave up as sweat dripped from her brow.
“No wonder they gave Nightshade a run for their money. Those muscles are like genuine corded steel,” Jane said to Sarah.
“Look at the teeth on this thing,” said Sarah, lifting back the upper lip to reveal lines of serrated teeth that reflected the light shining on them, their needle sharp points twinkling. Sarah tapped one of the front incisors with a scalpel and was rewarded with a musical chime of metal on metal.
“Any signs of surgery?” asked Jane.
“No, none,” replied Sarah examining the animal's gums. “So either the level of surgery used is quite brilliant or the these teeth were grown.”
“Probably the same as the claws then,” observed Jacob as he jogged back into the surgery, his thumb wrapped in a small bandage. “Look,” he added, gingerly lifting a rear leg. “No signs of any cuts or stitching yet the sickle claw is definitely metal.” After Jane and Sarah had both noted his observation he dropped the leg and gasped as the claw sliced through a wafting piece of the covering sheet. “Extremely sharp too!”
“Tidy up here,” Jane said to her assistants. “I need to discuss this with Mr Murdoch.”
Murdoch was back at his desk despite it having been only a few hours since Jane had left him to dissect the velociraptor.
“So much for you getting some sleep,” said Jane over her shoulder as she eased herself into the same chair she had used on her initial visit.
“I don’t need much these days. I get by on adrenaline,” Murdoch countered. “Tea?” he asked remembering his manners this time round.
“Definitely. I’ve got some surprises for you,” replied Jane propping her feet in an extremely unladylike manner in front of the fire.
“Hmmm…. Hope it’s a nice surprise.”
Jane shot Murdoch a quick look at this but he was engrossed in his tea making.
“I doubt it. There are never nice surprises these days,” said Jane with a small sigh.
“True. I’ve got some interesting news for you about that creature you were cutting up in the surgery. Just found the details half an hour ago in a shipping manifest and a half finished scientific paper. The animals are being surgically enhanced and shipped out to America.”
Murdoch handed Jane her tea noticing she squinted suspiciously at what she thought was the same cup he’d given her before. She was wrong. It was his dirty cup.
Murdoch sat down with a satisfied air and continued.
“The Americans are breeding those creatures on a base somewhere in Utah. Even worse they’ve been improving them, making them more resilient, stronger. You have to read the paper yourself as I won't pretend to understand it but the animals' fundamental building blocks – their 'genes' I think was the word used – are altered so that instead of bone claws they have metal ones. The Americans also succeeded in placing a steel mesh into their muscles strengthening them enormously.”
“My God. And breeding them? There’s a turn up for the books. I wonder how the Americans expect to control them.”
“Maybe control is the last thing on their minds. Drop a couple of hundred of those creatures into a populated area and you’ll have a massacre and total panic on your hands.”
Jane nodded. “You could well be right. The ultimate terror weapon.”
Jane and Murdoch were both silent as they sipped their tea thoughtfully, enjoying the ambience of the room where light flickered playfully from the fire.
“Well, my turn,” said Jane as she delicately laid her empty teacup on a nearby table. “That creature in the surgery is a dinosaur. Jacob says it’s a form of velociraptor. The British Museum are going to love this.”
“A dinosaur? Didn’t they all die out ermm…,” Murdoch waved his hand trying to pull the answer from his hazy knowledge of palaeontology.
“A long time ago?” Jane finished for him. “Yes. So one wonders what a supposedly extinct creature is doing crawling around Atlantis, Central America and an iceberg.”
“Hmmm… Do you think this Nucleus chap may have an idea? After all he’s meant to be the fount of all knowledge related to Atlantis.”
“My thoughts exactly, John. Guess where I’m going now?” she smiled impishly, happy to have predicted Murdoch’s plan.
“By the way, here’s something you’ll be interested in. Keep it hush hush just now as I haven’t told anyone else yet. The Americans have found something similar to the Nucleus.”
“What?” Jane was genuinely shocked. “How? The Renown is permanently on guard these days around Atlantis.”
Murdoch shook his head. “Not on Atlantis. I’ve got a diary here from someone who was in Greenland saying that they’d found something called the Core at an archaeological dig.”
“My God, John! That’s… That’s…”
“Not good,” finished Murdoch. “No. It’s not good at all. Perhaps you should ask the Nucleus if it has any brothers or sisters.”
Jane nodded dumbly, considering the implications of this shocking news. She waved distractedly as she walked out the door of the study deep in thought.
Murdoch watched her go. Such an nice girl, Nanny had said to him. You’re a very stupid boy for letting her get away from you, she’d added. And as usual, Nanny was right.
9 Return to the Nucleus
The dark room hummed ominously with a raw power that crackled through the air lending it a static charge that made Jane’s hair float gracefully and cloud like around her head. Jane stood in front of the black marble control slab, her face lit both by the giant luminous blue figure of the Nucleus that hovered above the jet black circle in the middle of the amphitheatre and the orange and yellow control glyphs gently pulsing on the surface of the slab.
“Welcome revered lady. It has been many moons since we, the Nucleus, has been pleased to recognise your presence. How may we help?” the Nucleus’ bass voice reverberated around the room.
Jane was in no mood to observe courtesies. Time could be critical. It probably wasn’t but she could not be bothered dealing
in niceties and formalities at this moment.
“What do you know about these creatures?” Jane said holding up a photographic plate of the dissected velociraptor she’d uncovered on the American Ice Base just a few days ago.
The room fell silent apart from the occasional surge and hum of energy. Jane could feel the Nucleus assimilating the details of the photograph. Its long face was expressionless and its eyes dark and unemotional giving nothing away.
“Where did you find an object such as the one you have in your hand, revered lady?” the Nucleus eventually asked, its voice lowering the temperature of the room by its sheer iciness.
“Several moons ago, members of our fighting forces came across a ‘tribe’,” Jane struggled to find a better word, “a swarm, of these creatures in a ruined building about a mile south of here.”
“Here? In Atlantis itself?” the Nucleus interrupted.
Jane was surprised at the emotions revealed in the hologram’s voice. It sounded almost scared. It was certainly surprised.
“Yes,” she said. On hearing no further response to this revelation, she continued.
“The British Empire has enemies in the world. Our enemies are jealous of our successes and power and seek to undermine our achievements and victories. One of our most powerful enemies is that of the United States of America, a nation located to the west of here.”
The Nucleus nodded imperceptibly. “Yes, we have knowledge of this great nation. A powerful empire it is, almost as powerful as that of the British Empire and the Soviet Republic.”
Jane paused. Was the Nucleus admitting something? Had it been dealing with the United States as well as Britain, playing both sides against each other for its own purposes? The Nucleus had provided Britain with many exciting discoveries and much knowledge. No one had ever stopped to think that it could somehow be dispensing the same information to rival empires especially as everyone assumed that there could only be one entity such as the Nucleus.
“You know about the United States?” asked Jane. She swallowed. Was it her imagination or had it got darker in here? Perhaps it hadn’t been a good idea to come here by herself. Next time she’d listen to the protestations of the Royal Marine captain and bring her escort into the amphitheatre with her. If there was a next time.
An Atlantean Triumvirate Page 12
