Project Armageddon

by Michael Stephens

  Josh startled Abbie as he went from lying down to on his feet in seconds. He grabbed the flash drive he purchased and desperately tore open the packaging.

  “You should have waited,” he said directly and in a firm tone.

  He ripped the drive from the package and inserted it into the laptop. Unknowingly, he pushed Abbie out of the way and started typically frantically.

  Abbie furrowed her brow and gave Josh and ugly look. “That was rude.”

  He softened his tone. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take over like that. But we don’t have that much time.”

  “Time,” asked Abbie. “Time for what?”

  Josh continued to type. The tiny green LED on the flash drive steadily glowed and blink in a syncopated rhythm.

  “Remember me telling you about the power?”

  “Yeah, but it turned on,” Abbie explained. “It should be okay.”

  Josh continued to hurry. “We need to get as much of the data transferred as we can.”

  “What’s the hurry?” Abbie pointed to the batter icon displayed in the bottom corner of the screen. “It shows half battery.”

  Josh fired back. “We don’t know if everything is completely dry. As the laptop warms up, if water makes content with the battery power--”

  “What’s that,” asked Abbie as she wrinkled her nose.

  “What’s what?”

  “What’s that smell?”

  A single quick, bright flicker of spark flashed in the rear of the laptop. Josh and Abbie found themselves looking at a dark, empty screen as several thin strands of smoke smoldered upward from where the computer sparked.

  “What the hell,” said Abbie.

  “Guess we found some water,” shrugged Josh.

  “Did we get the data?”

  Josh removed the flash drive from the smoldering laptop.

  “I don’t know.”

  Chapter 45

  Josh put on the remainder of his clothes. He and Abbie gathered up their things and were out of the hotel room within fifteen minutes. They headed for downtown on foot, each of them thinking of a different destination.

  Abbie was hungry. Josh wanted to find a computer and check the contents of the flash drive and, if possible, pull the hard drive out of the otherwise useless laptop. Their hike into downtown would take them at least ten blocks before they would need to decide.

  Fifteen blocks into the walk, Abbie pointed out an Internet cafe that served coffee, a small selection of breakfast sandwiches, pastries, and computers—rented by the half-hour.

  Abbie took some of their cash and ordered a large non-fat vanilla mocha, a large drip coffee for Josh, two breakfast sandwiches consisting of egg, sausage, cheese, on a warm croissant, and eight hours of computer time including Internet.

  She met Josh at the secluded table he found in the back of the busy cafe, away from the windows and the front door.

  “First things first,” said Josh as he took a large bite from his sandwich that just came off the grill. He opened his mouth and fanned it with his hand as he cradled the combination of hot egg, sausage, and cheese that scalded the roof of his mouth.

  “Careful, it’s hot,” Abbie said sarcastically.

  The message from Josh’s eyes sent a clear, no shit sentiment.

  “Ya think,” he said ambiguously while continuing to fan the hot food in his mouth.

  Josh typed on the cafe laptop that was attached to an anti-theft cable as he finally managed to swallow his food.

  “We need to copy whatever data we do have to somewhere safe.”

  Abbie followed, “To another flash drive?”

  “No. I have a cloud account.”

  Abbie was confused. “Cloud?”

  Josh finished another bite of his breakfast. “It’s a catchy way of saying someone else’s computer.”

  Josh continued to type, shove breakfast in his mouth and wash it down with his coffee, while he made weird faces at the screen as the computer responded to his inputs. A couple beeps and taps later, “We got a good portion of the data—best I can tell.”

  Several taps of his fingers against the keys made the screen light up. “You’re up,” said Josh. He turned the laptop toward Abbie.

  The next several hours were boring for Josh but not for Abbie. She was a machine, reading word after word that turned into page after page. At one point in the day, Josh swore Abbie did not blink for an hour.

  When Abbie went to use the bathroom, Josh stared at the information on the screen. Lines of words too long for him to attempt to pronounce filled sentence after sentence. When the sentences of long words ran out, weird hieroglyphic formulas and notations stared him in the face—some making his eyes cross. When Abbie returned, Josh watched for what seemed an eternity before his eyelids slowly closed.

  Josh brashly awoke from a deep sleep and jerked himself upright from the sound of Abbie slamming her fist against the table. He got his bearings with a quick look around the room as he blinked the sleep from his eyes. When his vision cleared, Josh saw the clerk rush to the loud noise.

  “Hey!” yelled the clerk. “You break it. You bought it.”

  Abbie stared lividly at the information on the screen.

  Josh read her emotions. She did not care about the counter, the computer, or the annoying minimum wage clerk that was yelling at her. He jumped to his feet and offered the clerk an apology.

  Josh returned to his chair next to Abbie once he got the clerk to leave.

  “Abbie, what is it?” he said with the same amount of concern he saw in her eyes.

  “I can’t believe it,” she said. “I don’t… I refuse to believe it.”

  “What?”

  “There’s still more to go through, but…”

  The suspense tore at Josh. “But what?” He asked.

  Abbie reluctantly answered with a disbelieving tone. “It looks like a design for a biological weapon.”

  Chapter 46

  “This doesn’t make any sense,” said Abbie. Her disposition screamed disbelief. “My father loved life. He dedicated his to making others live longer and fighting diseases. Diseases like the one that killed my mother. Why would he do such a thing."

  “You sure it might not have something to do with that note?” said Josh.

  “What note?”

  “The note he left you… I guess after he died.”

  “How do you know about it?”

  “It was on the floor last night… under the chair where you had your purse and things. I put it back once I knew what it was.”

  “But you read it?”

  “Yes.”

  “That was personal. You make it a habit of invading other people’s business.”

  “Not particularly.”

  Abbie asked sarcastically, “Then why am I so special?”

  Josh leaned back in his chair and let out a laugh or two. “Oh, let me count the ways. Should I just start and end with— People shoot bullets at me when I’m around you. I figured reading the note might help me understand the magnitude of what I agreed to help with.”

  “Well,” said Abbie. She wanted to be angry with Josh—she was upset with him. But his explanation was too logical for her to refute. Reading the note seemed insignificant to getting his car shot up…several times. She delayed her answer, trying to find anything to counter Josh’s argument. “That…that makes sense when you say it like that.”

  “Sometimes you nerdy types are so smart you’re freaking stupid.” Josh followed with an apologetic gesture. “No offense.”

  Josh’s sentence sent the logical part of Abbie’s brain into a whirlwind. He called me smart, and then he called me stupid in the same sentence… and then apologized for it? “What?”

  “I’m just saying…I read that letter,” said Josh, “and it sounds a lot like your dad was hurt and pissed-off. The words he wrote,” Josh paused. Should I be honest with her? “The words he wrote sounded like getting even with the world for what it did to your mom.”

&nb
sp; Abbie pulled the letter from her purse. She quickly refreshed her memory of the words her father left her. She searched for something… anything that would disprove Josh’s hypothesis of her father. She did not want to consider that what Josh was saying might be true.

  Abbie remembered how hard her father took her mom’s death. She thought about how long it took before he returned to being a dad, and even then he was gone more than he was there. Could Josh be right? Abbie looked up from the letter. She looked at Josh, full of worry.

  “I don’t speak ill of the dead. I never met your father.”

  Abbie noticed Josh’s voice begin to quiver.

  Josh continued. “But that letter describes exactly how I feel with my mom dying, and there’s nothing I can do but watch. I can’t imagine that happening to the mother of my children.”

  “How would you know, you have kids?” Abbie said rudely.

  “You need to have a wife to have kids.”

  Abbie’s eyes, face, and body language questioned his last statement.

  Josh corrected Abbie’s thoughts, emphatically. “In my world, you have a wife before you have kids.”

  “Wow,” said Abbie. What she said, or how she said it struck a nerve with Josh.

  He fired back quickly, deliberately being sarcastic. “Crazy, right? A jock that can manage his testosterone.”

  “Not that. You typically don’t find that quality in the male species.” She answered.

  “That a gross generalization. Wish it weren’t true,” Josh joked.

  They both shared a moment of awkward silence. It gave Abbie time for honest introspection.

  “What you said makes sense,” said Abbie. “I don’t want to believe it, but it is possible.”

  “Given everything that has happened, it makes sense. That Russian asshole wanted your father’s work…probably to sell it.”

  “Ukrainians,” correct Abbie.

  “Same difference,” fired back Josh.

  “World Geography not one of your better subjects?”

  Josh did not hide his frustration. “Did you know what I mean?”

  “Yes,” said Abbie.

  “Then just go with it and not be all nerdy-like”

  “Fine, but where did you ‘sell it’ from?”

  “TV. Arms dealers are usually Russian—seemed to fit.”

  “You do know that most of that stuff is fiction, right,” asked Abbie.

  “We are being hunted by Russ—Ukrainians with guns who want the potential biological weapon your father built. When those bullets were whizzing by, did that feel like fiction? And then there’s the Middle Eastern guy.”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s a terrorist, or at least that’s what the FBI lady said.”

  “Agent Walker,” added Abbie.

  “Yea, her. She warned us that he was after your father’s work…maybe even responsible for his death. It makes sense.”

  Abbie shook her head. “No, I’m telling you…there’s something missing.” Abbie gave the screen full of notes another brief glance. The answer is in there. “I just haven’t found it.”

  “Even the name, Armageddon, makes sense.

  “It certainly does,” said a familiar Ukrainian voice.

  Abbie and Josh snap their attention to the voice behind them, where they saw Dimitri Petrov and two of his ape-like goons.

  Chapter 47

  Abbie quickly locked the computer screen.

  Petrov smiled in his usually sinister way. “Tsk tsk tsk. That was not nice.”

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “Abigail, do not provoke me. Your father provoked me, and you see where it got him. Now, hand over Armageddon.”

  Abbie fired back. “No. It’s not yours.”

  Dimitri laughed hard. “Your naivety amuses me. I’ve been paying your father for the last ten years to develop that weapon, and now I want it.”

  “He would never take your money or build a weapon… of any kind.”

  Petrov was done playing around. His tone was stern and deliberate. “Hand me Armageddon.” He removed his pistol from his jacket and pointed it near point-blank at Abbie. Their secluded location, along with two giant-like henchmen on either side, made it very easy to brandish a weapon without causing any attention.

  Josh quickly intervened. “Alright,” he said. “Point that thing somewhere else.”

  Josh closed the cafe’s laptop lid while he inconspicuously removed the flash drive from the USB port. He slid the laptop toward Dimitri until the anti-theft cable was taught. He watched, waiting for Dimitri to point the gun’s barrel somewhere else.

  Petrov saw the laptop slide closer to him. He took Josh’s actions as a sign of good faith and lowered his weapon away from Abbie.

  When the gun barrel no longer pointed at Abbie, Josh yanked the laptop away from the anti-theft cable sending a shrilling high-pitch alarm throughout the entire cafe. The noise was deafening in the secluded area where Abbie and Josh were held against their will.

  The cafe clerk ran urgently to the source of the alarm. He yelled over the alarm that now had all the cafe customer’s in a panic to leave. “Hey. Put that back!”

  Dimitri stood as two shots from his semi-automatic weapon rang out above the alarm. Both shots removed the back of the clerk’s head, which decorated the wall behind him in what looked like a question from an inkblot test.

  The shots echoed above the alarm increased the panic in the cafe customers. Their attempts to exit the cafe went from non-orderly, but polite to pushing and shoving their way out as quickly as possible.

  After the quick work of the store clerk, Dimitri was ready to return his attention and the barrel of his gun towards Abbie.

  Josh blitzed Dimitri and his goons like an NFL linebacker on a quarterback. His quick rush toward the Russians sent tables flying on either side of him like he magically parted the water from a river.

  Josh head-butted Dimitri with his strong forehead that gave out a loud thump.

  Dimitri fell back from the blow to the head. His back landed hard against the wall. His backward momentum and the sudden stop snapped his head back quick and smacked it against the wall.

  The blow to the back of Petrov’s head jolted his entire body. He dropped his weapon as he struggled to keep his balance, even with help from the wall. Finally, his legs failed to hold him upright. Dimitri fell to the ground, dazed.

  Abbie watched like she was in the center of chaos surrounded by a small bubble of protection from a man she barely knew for forty-eight hours.

  With Dimitri on the ground, Josh made quick work of the henchmen. He placed one hand on each of their chests, and one-armed lifted each of the large men off their feet. Josh roared out a primal yell like it drew extraordinary strength from some unknown inner source. He drove the giant henchmen backward ten feet and slammed each of them into the back wall of the cafe.

  Abbie disbelieved the sequence of actions before her eyes. The speed at which Josh moved and the raw power he displayed gave her a different perspective of the gentleman that slept on the floor while she laid asleep, naked, in bed by herself. The display of strength sent an electric charge through Abbie’s body. It invigorated her like that of a shot of adrenaline. She watched Josh let go of the two large men whose heads dented the wall. They fell to the ground limp and remained motionless.

  Dimitri shook his head and blinked away the bright spots that plagued his vision. He gathered his faculties… and his weapon.

  Josh quickly turned and searched for Abbie. He found her… held at gunpoint by Petrov.

  “Give me Armageddon, or I’ll take it from your cold dead hands.

  Chapter 48

  “Slowly,” Petrov said. He instructed Josh to get the laptop from the mess of broken chairs and tables.

  Josh moved cautiously as he saw Dimitri’s gun move from Abbie and follow him toward the laptop.

  “Sit!” Dimitri yelled at Abbie as he threw her to the ground hard.

  Josh bent
and picked up the laptop from the rubble. He stood.

  “Slide it to me, on the ground. Carefully.” He reminded Josh.

  Josh did as he was instructed.

  The laptop came to a rest just before Dimitri’s feet. He squatted and picked up the computer, with his gun still pointed directly at Josh.

  “You have the laptop. Let her go,” said Josh,

  Petrov's lips peeled back to form his sinister smile.

  “No. Abigail has found new employment… working for me… building Armageddon.”

  “I will not, and I don’t want your money.”

  “You will,” said Dimitri as he momentarily waved the gun in her face before returning its aim on Josh. “You can get paid or do it for free… your choice.”

  “What about him,” Abbie asked, gesturing toward Josh.

  Dimitri shook his head. “He has caused enough trouble for today… and the rest of his life.” Dimitri raised his pistol and took aim at Josh.

  Abbie cried out. “Josh!” She moved toward him.

  Dimitri whirled the point of his gun toward Abbie. “Stay put.”

  Abbie made eye-contact with Josh. She saw fear grow in his eyes. He was a stranger that did not need to help her. But he did. She felt connected to him in such a short time. And now, just like all the others with whom Abbie felt connected—her dad, David, Emma— he too would die because of her. Abbie could not stop the emotional pain becoming visible in streams of tears down her face.

  “I never meant for any of this to happen.” She said as she wiped away the tears.

  “It’s cool,” said Josh with a quiver in his voice. It was clear he was out of options and scared. Josh tried to clear the fear from his voice as he spoke. “You just…” he paused to compose himself and his voice. “You just stay strong and stay alive.”

  Josh needed something to take his attention off his imminent death. He took one long look into Abbie’s glistening eyes. He did not know her long, but for the short time he did, he was glad. She's really cute for a nerd. He closed his eyes and bowed his head happy that his last remaining thought was Abbie—someone who always tried to make things right for everyone.