The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1)

by David Kersten

  He took a quick stock of his surroundings. Chin was at the controls center with that big behemoth Tiny next to him sitting in a chair that looked as if it might break at any moment. He briefly wondered if the big man would shift his loyalty once Jack was publicly brought down or if he would have to deal with him. This was not the kind of man he wanted as an enemy.

  Jack stood behind Chin, focused on the screens, looking very concerned. As Theodore approached, Jack was asking, “Where are we at? Have you reestablished coms yet?”

  Chin scratched at his scar, watching the monitors. “No change there. We can still see them but we can’t hear them or get any voice communications through to them. It’s as if their signal is being purposefully blocked. They’re done loading the dozer. It didn’t want to move at first, but Wendy coaxed it to life with a torch, a hammer, and some oil. Thomas and the crew are loaded up, and they should be dusting off at any moment.”

  “Okay, keep trying.” Jack turned to him. “Theodore, thank God you’re here. We have a situation and I fear the worst.”

  “What’s the problem.” It was no longer difficult to feign irritation at being called out here. Just talking to the man irritated him.

  Jack looked uncomfortable. “Well, there are a few problems. First, I think you will be pleased to know that all but one man from yesterday’s team was rescued, and we have secured the equipment we need.”

  “That’s good news, but why is that a problem?”

  “It isn’t, but we lost communications with them and we have reason to believe they are now in danger.”

  “Danger from what exactly?” He knew what, but he had to keep the ruse going.

  “Well, we discovered a traitor in New Hope and we believe he has struck some kind of deal with Cali that includes attacking Marcus and his crew.”

  His eyes narrowed slightly before he could force a look of surprise. “A traitor? Who!?” He tried to nonchalantly glance around to see if one of them was making a move to detain him. If they knew his involvement, this could be some of setup. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but he cursed at allowing himself to be here without safeguards. He would have to be more careful in the future.

  “Red. We had him arrested and put in the brig.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about this? On whose authority did you arrest him? I want to see what proof you had that he is a traitor!” He needed that evidence, if anything to make sure he wasn’t implicated.

  “Since Marcus is out of the complex, we handed the evidence to Caleb, who reviewed it and issued a command for his arrest. I… hope I didn’t step on your toes here, Caleb seemed to be in charge of domestic issues, and I figured you would be busy with your campaign.”

  He could deal with Caleb later. “Okay, then what exactly do you think I can do to help?”

  “Well, we figured since you handled most of the relations with Cali you could contact them, let them know we have arrested the traitor and are on to their plan, tell them they no longer have anything to gain from it, and ask them to call off their attack.”

  Theodore was trying to ignore how much attention was turning toward him and studied the monitors, which showed feeds from the four cameras on the large transport. He could see the activity as they prepared to take off. They were oblivious to what was about to happen. He had to stall.

  “What makes you think it’s Cali? Maybe this is just a technical problem.”

  “We’re pretty certain Red was communicating with Cali, but truthfully it is only an assumption based on the evidence. We only got the dialog of the communication, no names and we have no way of tracing who was on the other end. Even you have to admit, given the past week it’s a safe bet that we’re dealing with Cali here.”

  They didn’t know for sure, and without hard evidence there was no way they could pin this on him. And without Marcus around, there was no way they would ever find the evidence. “I appreciate the situation you are in, but I can’t simply pick up a datapad and call Cali. I have to send word to Joshua that I would like to parley with him. It could take hours to hear back if he is not available. And because of Marcus’ suggestion to avoid communications with them until after this operation, Joshua would be unwilling to discuss anything other than what happened up in Montana. Furthermore, accusing him openly of acting against us without any hard evidence of their involvement could catastrophically damage what relationship we already have. I certainly can’t just tell him we caught a traitor and he needs to stand down.”

  Jack stepped forward, a little closer to Theodore, his face looking more desperate. “Dammit, Theodore, I know you don’t like me and I know you figure you can use this against me, but fourteen of your citizens are on that transport! For the love of God, you have to try to get in touch with them and call this off!” Jack shoved a datapad toward him.

  He had to struggle to keep his emotions from showing. The insolence of this man knew no bounds. Who was he to demand anything! He looked down at the datapad and simply took a step back.

  “Who the hell do you think you are, Jack? I just said I can’t do anything. I was against this entire operation from the start, and I would never have put those people in that situation in the first place. If they are attacked, it will be on your head!” Jack’s mouth opened and closed a few times, but no words came out. Theodore turned his attention back to the monitors.

  The aircraft had lifted off the pad and was making its way over the city. One screen showed its position overlaid on an aerial map of the area. Another showed the feeds from the cameras on the exterior of the aircraft. A third screen showed the interior of the cockpit with Wendy at the controls. He watched her pilot the aircraft past the border of the city. A moment later, something on the control screens caught her attention. She worked the radio controls and appeared to be speaking frantically in effort to relay her situation back to New Hope. All of them could clearly see that four objects had been picked up on the radar, closing in on her. Chin worked some controls and the aerial map relayed the transport’s radar and now showed four dots heading directly for the large transport.

  Wendy changed the heading of the aircraft, and accelerated to max speed. Four more dots appeared, coming in from the direction she had just turned toward. She had turned directly into them and had nowhere to go with no time to turn the large craft around!

  “Dammit! Scramble everyone we have! Get out there and help her!” Jack was shouting the commands without looking to see if they were being followed. He was riveted to the screens.

  Theodore shouted, “No! They would never make it in time, and we would needlessly be risking not only our remaining aircraft, but an all-out war with whoever is closing on them! If those aircraft are indeed from Cali and they engage in hostile activities, they will pay dearly for this, I will see to it personally. But there is nothing we can do at the moment.”

  Jack lunged at him, grabbing the front of his shirt and nearly knocking him over. “This is bullshit, Theodore. You’re not even trying! Your dislike for me and Marcus and is obvious, but letting them die like this is beneath even you! You have stood by Marcus for two hundred years and now you will just stand here and watch him die?” A crowd had formed as the engineers and mechanics wandered over to see what the commotion was about. Theodore pushed Jack back.

  “If you touch me one more time, I will have you thrown in jail with your so called traitor.” He looked at Chin and Tiny, and figured they would stand behind Jack. He scanned the other men in the room, spotting many who he was sure were loyal to him, or at least to the council, and said, “If he tries to attack me again, haul him to the brig!”

  Jack wasn’t finished though. “Don’t listen to him. He’s going to let fourteen of your fellow citizens die, including Marcus, without lifting a finger to try to help them!” The group of people all turned to look at Theodore.

  That sonofabitch is trying to turn them against me. “I told you, Jack, it’s your fault they are out there. Marcus made his choice to foolishly risk his own life i
n a mission that was sure to fail, and there is nothing we can do about it! I was against this mission from the start, and after you failed the first time, you had to try again like any inexperienced leader would do, and now it looks like you have cost twice as many lives! If that aircraft doesn’t make it back, I will see to it personally that you are found guilty of treason!” The crowd turned their angry stares back to Jack, who was again focused on the monitors.

  Wendy looked really concerned now. She turned toward the camera and mouthed the word “Help!” The second group of four aircraft were now visible on the forward cameras. A burst of smoke erupted from the group and an object hurled at amazing speed toward the transport. The starboard forward camera went dark.

  The camera inside the cockpit shook and Wendy fought the controls. She got the aircraft under control and silently called for help again. The camera shook as another rocket struck the aircraft. The crowd in the room had gathered behind the screens and watched in horror.

  Jack made one last attempt to get Theodore to act. “You have to send our fighters out! They won’t last much longer! Dammit, why won’t you do something!”

  Theodore ignored him, and the crowd was paying too much attention to the screens to really notice. It was obvious that it was too late. Jack slumped down in a chair and watched as his girlfriend fought for her life. The look of sheer terror on his face delighted Theodore beyond measure.

  Wendy had turned the slow, heavy aircraft around and was punching buttons on the console in front of her. Four rockets shot out from the aircraft, visible on the second forward camera. The aircraft in front of her scattered, but the missiles followed. One, two, three aircraft disappeared from the radar screen, but the fourth apparently missed its target. The crowd let out a couple cheers at the spectacle, but Wendy looked like she was cursing. The silence added to the horror of the situation.

  The cockpit camera shook again as the aircraft took another rocket. Both rear cameras were dead now, and it looked like Wendy was fighting the controls, pulling hard to the right. From what they could see on the monitors, the transport was leaning to one side, as if it had lost a motor or two. The GPS showed the aircraft was also losing altitude.

  Wendy punched in some more buttons and turned hard left. The aircraft banked steeply to the left and turned much faster than it was ever designed to do, causing it to pretty much stall in mid-air and plummet, losing another thousand feet of altitude. But the maneuver succeeded in lining up the large aircraft with the first group of incoming enemies. She punched another button, and the remaining forward camera showed four more rockets heading out. Her move had taken them by surprise, and four more dots dropped off the screen. The crowd was frantic now, and even Jack had jumped out of his seat. Theodore was shocked. That woman had managed to take out seven of the eight aircraft! These losses were unacceptable. He made a mental note to institute an aircraft combat school once he was on the Cali council.

  There was one enemy aircraft left but Wendy was preoccupied with trying to keep the large transport in the air. It was down to four thousand feet of altitude now, and dropping fast. This time, Chin said, “Sir, we need to get a rescue crew headed out there. They’re going to go down, even if they aren’t attacked again.”

  Theodore nodded. “Send out a team right away. Maybe we will get lucky and have some survivors. God willing, Marcus will live through this.” Jack sneered at him but Theodore pretended to not notice.

  Just then, the front left camera flashed as a rocket struck. The left side of the cockpit exploded inward, blowing glass and flames across the camera view, and knocking Wendy’s lifeless looking body to the copilot’s seat. Wind and debris obscured the camera in the cockpit, but the rate of descent accelerated dramatically. The remaining exterior camera was almost perpendicular to the ground, proving that the left front motor had been knocked out.

  Jack cried out. As the aircraft descended, the cockpit camera cleared up, and there was Wendy, laying sideways in the copilot’s seat, one hand on a strap keeping her from being sucked out of the cabin, and the other pulling hard on the controls. The descent slowed and the aircraft began to straighten out. It was too little to stop the ground from rushing toward the camera, but it wasn’t going to be an outright crash straight into the ground.

  The aircraft came down hard, devastating the remains of the cockpit. Jack moaned in his seat as he watched what must surely be his girlfriend’s death. The remaining camera steadied out as the aircraft came to a halt showing nothing but dust, smoke, and the ground. The radar view, amazingly enough, was still active, and they saw the final enemy aircraft circle around the downed transport, then swoop in directly over the top. As it flew over, there was a very brief flash, and both the radar and last camera’s views went dead.

  The crowd was silent. Everyone, including Theodore, thought that Wendy’s struggle might miraculously pull them through after she heroically took down most of the attackers. Theodore made a note to mention those heroic efforts when he made his next speech to the crowd. Right now he put on his best look of grief and anger. “Why hasn’t the rescue team left yet?!”

  The team shot into action, piling into the waiting transport. Chin looked at him from his seat, a tear in one eye. “I could have had them out ten minutes ago if you had let me.” He studied the scarred man, wondering how much of a threat he would be. He decided that with Marcus dead, and his ability to lay it all at Jack’s feet, it didn’t matter. He felt a little remorse for losing the man he had worked side by side with for nearly two centuries. He would miss their verbal sparring. However, it was a good trade as far as he was concerned.

  Jack was still moaning softly on the opposite side of the crowd but otherwise just sat there staring at the ground. Tiny had gotten out of the chair and had one massive arm around him. It was time to put the last nail in the coffin. He turned to the crowd, who all looked stunned at what they had just witnessed. “I want that man arrested for treason. He needlessly put those fourteen souls at risk, against my judgment, and he will pay for his crime. As acting leader of the council, I demand it!”

  * * *

  Half the crowd outright ignored Theodore’s command. The other half turned to Jack with contempt in their eyes, but didn’t make a move. Tiny stood tall over Jack’s apparently catatonic body, as if in challenge to anyone to try to touch him. Finally the big man said, “I will take him there myself, just to avoid any more conflict. We have all been through enough already. But as soon as I drop him off, I’ll be visiting the other council members to get this bullshit order rescinded. Your friend just died, Theodore, and all you can think about is your damned politics?”

  Some of the men who were about to follow Theodore’s orders seemed to reconsider. Tiny continued, now addressing the entire crowd, “If you people elect Theodore as the next leader, you can have your trial. Until then, I don’t recognize his authority.”

  Nobody in the room was going to question him, obviously, and at least half the men nodded in agreement. It was fine with Theodore. All he needed was fifty one percent of the vote, and after this devastating blow to his competition, he was certain he would have far more than that. He turned without another word, got on the rail car, and punched the button.

  Chapter 39

  Theodore headed back to his private quarters. His spirits were particularly high. For the past twenty years, he had felt oppressed by Marcus. It started when they disagreed on the subject of Cali and seemed to escalate daily ever since. Until then, their philosophies had been in sync, and he had not had much difficulty playing second fiddle.

  He reflected on his long life, starting back in Saber Cusp as a young man. His parents had enough standing with the city to get him appointed to the most prestigious scientific department: artificial intelligence. The star of the department was a young Marcus. By the age of twenty two, Marcus had achieved more prestige with the citizens of Saber Cusp than any other scientist in the history of the city. As an understudy Theodore quickly became wealthier than he
could have ever imagined, and his position granted him more prestige than he could have gained for himself in fifty years. He worked hard to become friends with Marcus, gaining his trust first, then his respect as they worked together to make huge advances in their field. Regardless of how well Theodore did, however, in the public’s eye, Marcus was always better than him. He accepted his place, and even when Saber Cusp was reduced to a small handful of survivors and prestige no longer mattered, he remained in that place, just beneath Marcus.

  Now the man was gone, for good this time. It was his turn, and he was the one with the most prestige. It wasn’t the same as the days of old, but it was good enough for Theodore. Once he was on the council in Cali, it would even be better. And with the wealth of DNA in Montana under his control, he would soon be the most powerful and prestigious leader in existence.

  He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was time to set some things in motion. He had one quick call to make before he secured his temporary leadership in the absence of Marcus. With his former mentor gone, there was no longer anyone smart enough or skilled enough to bypass his countermeasures. He was free to contact Cali from right here and finish the deal.

  He brought up the satellite link and sent the command to connect to the laser transmitter that Joshua had pointed at their satellite. A few minutes later, two boxes came up on the screen.

  THIS HAD BETTER BE WORTH IT, I LOST SEVEN AIRCRAFT!

  I TOLD YOU TO BRING A LOT OF FIREPOWER.