“You have a file on Ben?”
“My dear Ms. Moss, Senex has a file on everybody.”
Titan Six
The Tube beneath Mount Elbert
“Who are these men?” Hawkeye asked, looking at the robed figures standing next to Quiz.
They can see you, Dante.
* Improvise, my friend.”
“They’re both . . . Ancients,” said Quiz.
“Projections.”
“The soldiers are one minute away,” said Touchdown.
“We need to get out of here,” Hawkeye proclaimed, turning to Dante and the Ancient. “Can you take us to the control room of this cube, assuming it has one?”
The old man in the white robe nodded. “Of course, my friends. Please follow me.”
A new portal opened up, and Titan Six and Quiz followed the robed figures into a new chamber with a pneumatic tube. They ascended to the top story of the cube and exited the elevator.
“I must go now,” said the Ancient. “I can exist apart from the cube for only a short time.”
The Ancient slowly became transparent, his body turning into a thousand points of light.
“It’s like the snow on a TV with bad reception,” Gator said.
“I must leave as well,” said Dante.
Within a minute, both Dante and the Ancient could no longer be seen.
Are you there, Dante?
* Safe and sound, as always. *
Quiz glanced at his hand, which was laced with black spider veins.
“The infection’s back,” Quiz said.
Ops Center
Beneath Mount Whitney
“DJ, take over as liaison for Titan Six,” Caine said. “Touchdown, take the meds from the Alamiranta through the SURP system to Station 872. Use a three-car maglev train so we have a way to bring back our teams. Now haul ass.”
Touchdown shot up from his chair. A former member of Titan Six and subordinate of Hawkeye, Touchdown had been paralyzed for several months after a raid on a Somali pirate ship had not gone as planned. He had operated in the Ops Center on board the Alamiranta in a wheelchair until Grace had been able to cure the paralysis with knowledge gleaned from The Genesis Code.
He’d been working out for many months, sharpening his skills and rebuilding his strength. He was pumped now, ready for action in one of the more dangerous scenarios that Titan Six had encountered. Within thirty minutes, he was wearing his combat suit and helmet, headed for a maglev train waiting at SURP Station 112 beneath Mount Whitney.
“Ready to rock and roll!” he cried as he accepted an aluminum case of meds from Grace Nguyen.
“Take care out there,” Grace said. “And make me proud.”
Touchdown, a tall man with a solid physique, gave Dr. Nguyen a thumbs-up.
“You can count on it, Doc. I’m back in the saddle again!”
The maglev eased out of the station into the tunnels of the SURP system as Grace watched the taillights disappear.
She was happy for Touchdown. She also knew that, as with all missions staged by Titan Global, there was a chance that the teams would not return.
Off the Somali coast, Touchdown had learned a sobering lesson the hard way: sometimes things went terribly wrong.
Titan Six
The Tube beneath Mount Elbert
Portals opened up all around Titan Six’s position. Brown-clad soldiers stormed the room.
“Take it, Gator!” Hawkeye cried. “Everybody else down!”
Titan Six fell to the floor as Gator spun in a circle, his machine gun spitting thunder at seven commandos whose bodies flailed wildly as bullets bit through muscle and bone in round after savage round.
Another two commandos jumped through a portal, but Tank and Aiko grabbed their shirts, fell backwards, and pulled the soldiers’ bodies over their heads. The commandos landed with a loud thud but rolled over quickly, ready to fight. Shooter and Hawkeye scrambled to the downed soldiers and knocked them unconscious with a series of decisive blows to their heads.
“The cube is crawling with commandos,” said DJ, now sitting in Touchdown’s chair. “The cube is like an anthill, and the ants are spreading everywhere just like they do when they discover a breach in the mound. You’re surrounded.”
“I thought this was the control room,” Aiko said.
Shooter was already pressing the hydrogen symbol, which was embossed on the wall in front of her.
Titan Six climbed to their feet, but immediately took a step back. A rectangular glass window had opened up in the wall, revealing Burmaster, Marshall, and Beemler. They were sitting in chairs, surrounded by metal and glass controls, all of which blinked different colors. The room was lined with metal conduits connected to the mysterious machines and advanced computers that controlled all functions of the cube.
“It’s indeed the nerve center,” Hawkeye noted, “and I’m guessing that the glass is one-way. They obviously can’t see us, but we can see and hear them. Advantage — Titan Six.”
Dr. Beemler held forth, looking alternately at his two companions as he spoke.
“We’re ready for replication at last,” Beemler said. “We’ve learned not only how to replicate metallic DNA using the cube’s technology, but my team has discovered how to actually clone the entire cube. All we need is a small portion of the cube’s metal-organic structure as a growth medium and we can recreate more cubes anywhere in the world.
“Senex will not only be able to have chokeholds at key places in the U.S. government, but it will have ultimate control over anyone in the world. Even the Chinese, who will no longer be able to assume the role as the world’s major superpower.”
“Our organization’s influence will be cemented for good,” Burmaster noted. He was holding a small tube of bluish-gray liquid. “From this small amount of matter, we can create an almost godlike technology.”
Tank scratched his head and looked at his brother.
“Can you shed any light on this, Ops?” Hawkeye asked.
“Not entirely, Mr. Hawke,” said Caine, “except that these men have both lofty and dangerous goals.”
“More commandos headed your way, Hawkeye,” DJ said. “I see no exit strategy for you, T6.”
Hawkeye looked at each member of his team. “It’s time to take some hostages,” he said. “Gator, blow that window to kingdom come.”
“Gator raised his SAW. “Gladly, boss.”
Central Intelligence Agency
Langley, Virginia
A knock sounded on the door of the secret office of Grady McManus.
“Come,” McManus said.
The Sector Monitoring Chief entered the small space. His ID badge read Walter Hackett.
“What is it, Chief Hackett?” McManus asked.
“You’re needed down the hall in Room 112-27, sir. It’s urgent. I’ll guard Ms. Moss.”
“Very well,” McManus said. “Don’t let her anywhere close to the door. She’s already fooled us twice.”
“Acknowledged, Admiral.”
McManus left the office as he adjusted his blue uniform blazer with gold braid.
Thirty seconds passed before Chief Hackett looked out the door and then back at his prisoner. “The coast is clear, Gwen,” he said. “Follow me.”
“But — ”
“I, too, am a friend of Catherine Caine. Do everything I tell you. Now!”
The two CIA agents bolted from the office and retraced their path back to the main corridors on the twelfth underground level. They boarded an elevator and rode up nine stories.
“Where are we going?” asked Gwen.
“First stop is a safe place for you to send your email to Mrs. Caine. I saw you preparing it back in the security monitoring station.”
“Safe? And where would that be?”
“Your office. It’s the last place they’ll look. But you have to hurry because they will most definitely look there sooner or later.”
* * *
Gwen sat at her computer and
called up the blank email with the Senex attachment. She typed a brief message to her former boss and sent the email into the fiber optics of cyberspace.
“Where to now, Chief?” she asked.
“All main exits will be covered,” Hackett said. “We’re going to try a very old trick. I’m sure you’ve seen it in the movies.”
“What trick is that?”
“Sneaking out through the kitchen.”
Titan Six
The Tube beneath Mount Elbert
“Dive in!” Hawkeye yelled as glass shards from the rectangular window of the control room flew in all directions.
Hawkeye threw his body through the window first, landing hard on the floor of the cube’s control room. A startled General Burmaster sprang from his chair. Marshall pushed a red button on his glass desk.
“Somebody just summoned reinforcements!” Tank exclaimed, diving next.
Hawkeye’s fingers tightened around the front of Burmaster’s khaki shirt. Pulling the General roughly forward, Hawkeye gave Burmaster a head-butt, sending the General reeling backwards, his blue eyes wide and glazed.
Her body horizontal, Aiko sailed through the air, smashing into Beemler and knocking him to the floor. With one swift blow, she bloodied his nose as his struggling body went slack.
Shooter jabbed Marshall in the face, twisted him around by his arm, and cuffed him.
“Ow!” Marshal wailed. “You’re going to wrench my arm out of its socket!”
“My heart’s bleeding for you, pal,” said Shooter.
“This is an outrage!” Beemler protested.
“No,” said Hawkeye. “It’s a takeover.”
Within seconds, all three men were cuffed and seated.
“You won’t prevail, Mr. Hawke,” Burmaster commented when he’d regained his wits. “You’re up against something you can’t even begin to understand.”
“Like the Ancients?” said Hawkeye. “Or their mastery of DNA?”
Burmaster’s face twisted into a frown of utter disbelief. “How can you possibly know what this cube is?”
“None of your business,” Hawkeye said. “For now, the three of you are coming with us.”
Burmaster grew red in the face. “I went up against President Kennedy!” he bellowed. “I told him to bomb the damn Soviets and slammed my fist on his desk! You don’t realize who you’re dealing with!”
“Yes I do,” Hawkeye countered. “An idiot.”
Quiz climbed through the window and began to examine the high-tech controls.
“Looks like a flippin’ spaceship,” Gator said.
Quiz’s keen mind glanced at the entire room, noting which conduits were attached to various consoles. He sat at a station on the room’s far left.
“There’s a keypad here with the same symbols you saw on the outside of the cube — traingles, squares, plus signs, hydrogen, and the rest. Give me a minute. It should summon . . . wait . . . wait . . . yes, here we go.”
A pneumatic elevator materialized in the opposite wall.
“Everybody in,” Hawkeye said. “Going down.”
Inside the elevator, Titan Six stood in close quarters with their prisoners. Burmaster leaned toward Hawkeye and spit in his face. Hawkeye’s right hand clenched the General’s jaw and squeezed with preternatural strength, bringing tears to Burmaster’s startled eyes.
“Do that again,” Hawkeye warned, “and I’ll break your damn teeth, along with your jaw.”
Burmaster scowled, giving his face an awful countenance similar to Marshall’s grotesque features.
“Go twenty-two levels down,” DJ said. “It’s one of the few places where I don’t see commandos.”
The elevator descended.
* * *
I’m running fever. I’m hot as hell and growing weak again. My helmet visor displays my temp as 103.
* Touchdown is on the way with Grace’s med. I’m not sure your body can assimilate another energy transfer like the one I provided before. Anyway, we’re not exactly alone right now and therefore in no position to give it a try. *
I understand, but this time is worse than before.
* I know. I can feel it. I’m in here with you. *
Misery loves company. Thanks.
Ops Center
Beneath Mount Whitney
“I just received an email from Spider,” DJ said. “I think you’ll want to see this right away, Mrs. Caine.”
Caine took the printout and read it.
Catherine,
Have made connection with Hackett. In danger.
Senex is 100 men comprising renegade secret
government. Headquarters below Colorado.
Attached file lists names and activities.
Spider
Caine downloaded the attachment and scanned the names at the top of the list, which contained far more information than Spider’s first email.
“Titan Six, do you read?” asked Caine.
“Roger,” said Hawkeye.
“Listen closely,” said Caine. “The three men you’ve captured are part of a covert branch of military and scientific personnel operating outside the jurisdiction of the United States government. This explains the conversation you heard in the control room before blasting your way in. They apparently intend to replicate the cube in other parts of the world and extend their sphere of power. We naturally can’t allow that to happen. I’m sending in Titan Four. They’re going to destroy the cube, if such a thing is possible. Bring your prisoners back to the Ops Center. They’ll need to be debriefed.”
“We need to save as much of the library as possible,” Ambergris interjected. “And also obtain samples of the cube’s structure to examine its hybrid metallic-DNA structure.”
“I’ll do it,” Quiz said.
“You’re too sick,” said Caine. “Stay with Titan Six.”
I’m going to the library, as well as obtain samples from the cube’s structure. I’m not going to do anybody any good just sitting around and waiting.
* Correction. We are. I’ve picked up some of the schematics of the cube as we’ve moved about. I can get us there. *
Thanks. If Touchdown arrives in time, so much the better. If not . . .
Touchdown
SURP Rail System
Touchdown was seated in the front maglev car as the three-car train sped at a speed of 357 miles per hour, far exceeding the safety limits for the rail system. He was rapidly approaching the Colorado state line when he began to feel the dizziness that others had reported. He’d received Grace’s latest BioMEMS injection, but she’d also given him some additional meds to help with nausea and dizziness caused by those approaching the cube for the first time. He popped a gelcap, took a deep breath, and tried to relax. He ignored the strange sights he saw outside the window. The rational part of his brain knew that no Somali pirates were lurking in the government’s secret rail system.
Central Intelligence Agency
Langley, Virginia
“Where in the name of God are we?” Gwen asked, turning to Hackett.
“A system of corridors that was abandoned thirty years ago when the Company expanded its underground facilities and began to modernize its internal surveillance systems. The cameras down here are no longer operative — not even connected to the security grid anymore.”
The two agents ran through the maze of dark, musty corridors with only the aid of Hackett’s weak flashlight. The air was stale and difficult to breathe.
“The location of the kitchen hasn’t changed, however, and these corridors lead there,” Hackett decalred, wheezing. “Even CIA spooks get hungry.”
Hackett slowed as he approached a door directly ahead.
“This leads to executive dining rooms,” he said. “They’re seldom used, especially at this time of day.”
He nudged the door open and motioned for Gwen to follow him through the empty dining areas as he made his way to a locker room where chefs donned their hats and aprons.
“I think it suits
me,” Gwen said as she stood before a mirror. She was wearing a standard white chef’s apron, buttoned high on the neck, and a chef’s hat.
Hackett, dressed in similar attire, straightened his tall hat. “When we go into the kitchen, grab a utensil or a pan and walk calmly. Follow me — I’ll be heading to the receiving dock. The only way out is to hide in a delivery van. We’d never make it past the checkpoints if we used an automobile.”
Gwen grabbed an aluminum mixing bowl while the Chief seized a long steel carving knife. They waded through the bustle of people working the line — chopping, calling in orders, shuffling pans over industrial ranges, and serving plates on the glass order-up counter.
Two minutes later, they stood on the loading dock, scanning the many vehicles that supplied the kitchen’s freezers and pantries.
“Over there,” Hackett whispered. “There’s a pastry delivery van. That’s our ticket out of here.”
The pair walked into the back of the van, pulled the rear doors shut, and crouched below several boxes. The back of the van was separated from the front by a wire mesh screen.
After five tense minutes of waiting, Gwen and Hackett fell backwards as the van lurched forward. Gwen looked at Chief Hackett and smiled. They were almost home free.
The van came to an abrupt halt, causing Gwen’s heart to beat as fast as a hummingbird’s. The rear doors were pulled open, light spilling into the rear of the vehicle.
“Take them,” Grady McManus said, standing on an asphalt road leading away from the loading dock.
Fully armed MPs roughly dragged Gwen and Hackett from the van. They were just as quickly pushed into the rear of another van, black and unmarked.
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