Hold On! - Tomorrow (A Sci-Fi Thriller)

by Peter Darley

  The blue figure grasped his palm.

  “All right, I’ve got you. Hold on!” He turned around with the person in his grasp, and headed back out.

  When they reached the outside, he saw it was a young man he’d just pulled out of there. “All right, buddy. You’re safe now.”

  “W-what . . . are you?” the young man said, distressed.

  “I’m a man, so don’t worry. The suit might look a little strange, but I couldn’t have got to you without it.” B.J. caught the attention of the fire chief. “Sir, this man needs help.”

  “We’ll take it from here. You get back in there and see who else you can find.”

  “Way ahead of you.” B.J. ascended and flew back inside.

  Within fifteen minutes, he’d located nine civilians and brought them out safely. On each occasion, their genders only became apparent on the outside.

  He caught the chief’s attention and said, “There’s one more.”

  “OK. Good luck.”

  He flew through the dust again and headed for a stranded, blue figure at the far side of the building. He accelerated slightly and reached the person in moments.

  “P-please. . . Help me!”

  It’s a woman. “I’m here. Don’t move.”

  “I c-can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m trapped.”

  He focused in on her and could make out some kind of structure covering her midsection. He lowered himself and tapped it lightly. It felt like rock or concrete, which suggested it had fallen upon her. He knew he could cut it in two with his wrist laser, but all he could see of her and the wreckage was a blue outline. If he used the laser, he could easily cut her in half. Think, B.J. Think.

  Looking to the left, he saw the beam pinning her down extended for approximately three yards.

  He aimed his arm to the left of her and bent his wrist downward. The laser projected onto the rock and cut through it as he drew his hand down. After repeating the move on her right side, only the remnants of the beam remained, resting on her abdomen. He grasped either end. The hydraulics in the crook of his arms took the weight, enabling him to easily hurl the concrete into the dust.

  He knelt down, cradled her in his arms, and flew toward the exit.

  Within seconds, he came through the dust into the open air. The emergency services were waiting. “Chief,” he said. “This lady needs medical assistance.”

  “I-I can’t feel my legs,” she said.

  After laying her upon a stretcher beside a fire truck, he was finally able to see her face clearly. She was approximately his own age—mid-twenties—with the blonde of her hair barely visible through a heavy coating of dust and cement. Her face was soiled and cut in several places. “What’s your name?” he said.

  “Cindy.”

  She succumbed to a fit of coughing, but he held his metal-clad palm gently on her shoulder. “You’re gonna be fine, Cindy.”

  She shook her head desperately. “N-no. You . . . you have to go back.”

  “Go back?”

  “My daughter is still trapped inside.”

  “Your daughter? Where?”

  “She fell . . . down to the . . . lower floor . . . when the earthquake hit.” She weakly placed her hand on his, and her eyes assumed a dreamlike quality. “Save her. I. . . I know you will. You will . . . save . . . them all.” Her hand slipped from his, and her eyes became a lifeless glaze.

  He’d never seen it before. She’d been alive seconds ago, but now she appeared as a mannequin. He couldn’t believe she’d ever been living, her gaze was so cold and inanimate. He sensed his tears welling up with her last words echoing his ears: You will save them all.

  Another tremor shook and the fire chief came toward him. “We have to move out.”

  “No. I’m going in.”

  The chief came around to the front of him, imploringly. “You can’t go back in. You’ll be killed. That place is coming down in the next few seconds.”

  “Look, there’s a little girl trapped in there! I’m not leaving her. I just lost one. I’m not losing another.” He gestured to the corpse on the stretcher. “Cindy left a part of herself in this world, and I’m getting her out of that hellhole.” Not waiting around for a response, he flew back inside.

  What did she say? Her daughter is trapped on the lower floor?

  Tito’s voice came through the helmet “B.J., I know what you’re doing. There’s a zoom lens in the photoreceptors. I’m going to activate it from here. Stand by.”

  “Thanks. It’s like swimming in pea soup here.” He looked down and saw a blue spec beneath him, approximately one hundred yards ahead. “I think I’ve got her, Tito. Keep the zoom on.”

  “You got it.”

  Urged on by adrenaline, he increased his speed toward the blue spec until it seemed larger.

  “Remember, B.J. this is zoom. She’s not as near as you think.”

  “All right. Ease it off as I get closer.”

  He reduced his speed with Tito retracting the zoom, and was quickly able to gauge his distance. “Is the zoom off now?”

  “Yes.”

  “In that case, I’m on her.”

  B.J. slowed his descent and landed beside the little girl. He discovered he could see her clearly and realized he’d landed below the thick of the dust.

  He gazed into her terrified eyes with tears streaming down her face. “It’s all right,” he said. “I’m gonna get you out of here. What’s your name?”

  “Katie,” she said.

  He faced a gut-wrenching truth before him: a frightened little girl, who had no idea she’d just lost her mother. Katie looked no older than five. He realized she faced a life ahead of her without a mother, and only dim memories of the one she’d had.

  But she had her own life, and an overwhelming need to get her to safety consumed him.

  The building rumbled and bricks and mortar fell all around them. The roof, two hundred feet above, fell in. B.J. wrapped his arms around Katie, protectively. Turning his back to the debris, he shielded her from the onslaught.

  He glanced up and noticed light coming through the dust. It’s a way out.

  He looked down at the little girl and gently held her shoulders. “Katie, I know I’m a funny looking guy, but we’re getting out of here. I need you to put your arms around me and hold on tight. Can you do that?”

  “Yeah, I guess,” she said. “I want my mommy.”

  Oh, damn. Why did she have to say that? “OK. All set?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then let’s go for a ride.” He touched the jet boots activator on his wrist. Nothing happened. He tried it again, but still nothing. “Oh, my God.” Desperately, he switched on the helmet’s mike. “Tito?”

  “I’m here. What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t move. The boots aren’t working.”

  “That’s impossible. You’ve got more than enough charge.”

  “It won’t work, dammit!” Looking up, he saw another barrage of debris falling. In an instant, he knew they were trapped, with a sky-rise department store about to fall upon them.

  Ten

  Powerless

  B.J. pulled Katie into a crevice beside them to avoid the impact of a fallen boulder. Looking around the crater, he discovered the infra-blue light equalizers in his photo generators were failing. The hole in the roof was approximately two hundred feet above, but everything below was in complete darkness.

  “I’m running a diagnostics check on the armor,” Tito said. “Everything seems to be running. The electrical supply and the sensors are working perfectly. No microchip faults of any kind. None of this makes any sense.”

  “Keep looking, Tito. This is urgent.”

  “I am. Something must be jamming the transmission sensors, because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the armor.”

  “How can that be?”

  “I have no idea, but it’s the only explanation I’ve got.”

  The earth shook with another tre
mor, and another boulder crashed into the crater. “Tito, you have to come up with something. I can’t even see in the dark anymore.”

  “All right. I need you to try any of the other features. How about the wrist laser? ”

  B.J. stretched out his arm and bent his wrist downward. Nothing happened. “Same thing, Tito. It’s dead. I’m completely powerless.”

  “OK, stay calm. There’s a way out of this.”

  “What’s that?”

  “When you looked up, I saw an opening above you.”

  “Yeah, but how do we get to it?”

  “Shield that little girl as much as possible,” Tito said. “I’m going to override the sensors and activate the armor from here. I’ll be in control, but I’ll get you out. You ready?”

  “I’m the readiest you’ve ever known. Get us the hell out of here.”

  “Stand by.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Katie said.

  “A friend of mine. I have a microphone in the helmet. He’s getting us out, so I need you to hold on tight, OK?”

  “OK.”

  He picked her up, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He placed the palm of his right hand over the top of her head as a protective measure against falling debris.

  He darted out into the center of the crater, sensed the familiar pressure in the boots, and gazed skyward. The jets activated, launching them up toward the opening.

  Rock and glass rained down upon the armor’s alloy shell, causing B.J. intense concern for Katie’s safety. He felt as though he couldn’t hold her tightly enough. Concrete smashed against the armor of his hand covering her head.

  However, within a second, the pinhole of light he’d seen below became a gaping beacon. And then, finally, they were out, rising over the collapsing high rise.

  The ground gradually came closer, with the airborne view of Des Moines showing a city in ruins as he slowly descended.

  He returned to the location of the rescue services and saw the fire trucks and ambulances had moved away. The former street had been torn asunder, leaving a new, gaping chasm in its place.

  “The firefighters and medivac have gone,” B.J. said. “It looks like a quake hit out here when we were inside.”

  “Agent Drake, there’s a police presence one mile due east of your current position,” Crane said. “Give the girl to the officers and return to base immediately.”

  B.J. was silent and felt like his heart had just come into his throat.

  “Agent Drake, respond.”

  “I . . . I can’t leave her. She has no one. Please, sir,” he said with the unmistakable quiver of emotion.

  “You don’t know she has no one, and you are in no position to assume responsibility for her. Now, take her to the police and get back here. That’s an order. This mission is aborted. Tito will bring you back to D.C.”

  With a heavy heart, he swooped around several corners until he saw a team of scurrying police officers. He landed, approached one of the officers, and handed Katie to him. “Officer, this little girl needs help.”

  “All right, I’ll take it from here.”

  The officer’s expression seemed perplexed as he looked at him. B.J. realized the armor wasn’t a sight he would’ve been used to seeing.

  He scanned the crowd of officers, eager to secure Katie’s wellbeing. He noticed an older officer, likely the one who was in charge, and approached him. “Sir, can I talk to you in private for a moment?”

  The man acknowledged him and came closer. “Of course. I received Intel you were coming. I’m Chief Downes.”

  In a lowered tone, B.J. said, “I just left a little girl with one of your officers.”

  The chief looked across to his left and nodded.

  “All I can tell you is her name is Katie. Her mother’s name was Cindy, but she died outside the department store a block over there.”

  The chief looked down sadly. “Dammit. I know the emergency services had to pull out of there when another tremor hit.”

  “I have to go.”

  “Yeah, you go on ahead. And . . . thank you.”

  B.J. turned away and looked skyward. “All right Tito. I’m ready,” he said.

  Just before the rumble of the jet boots came, he heard Katie in the background saying “Where’s metal man going? Where’s my mommy?”

  And then he was launched into the sky. Tears of gut-wrenching sadness came to his eyes. Oh, Katie. You poor little thing.

  Heather sat taking notes in the situation room, stifling her own tears as the emotional scene unfolded on the monitor screen. Her attention was distracted by the angered tones of Senator Sloane. She looked across and saw him walking over to Director Crane.

  “Well, Director,” Sloane said. “Quite a disappointing outcome, wouldn’t you say? I thought you said that armor was ready for field work.”

  “It was,” Crane replied. “I can’t make any comment on what happened until a detailed analysis has been conducted.”

  The senator’s nose almost touched Crane’s, his eyes exuding an intense, judgmental glare. “We can’t afford this kind of incompetence in a crisis situation like that.”

  “Senator I can assure you—”

  “I don’t want to hear any more excuses or promises, Director Crane. I want technicians’ reports from respectable bodies of expertise within and outside of EDID, with explanations and rectifications for this colossal screw-up. I’ll be submitting a recommendation that this operation be suspended until the problem has been conclusively solved. If it can’t be solved, Project: Interceptor will be closed down. What I just saw was a disgrace, and potentially fatal.”

  The other senators in the room gave unified stares of concurrence. Crane looked across at them but they all looked away.

  “Senator Sloane,” Crane said finally, “at this time, it’s impossible to say what the cause of the problem is. It might have nothing to do with the armor.”

  “If it has nothing to do with the armor, then what the hell caused it?”

  “That’s what we have to find out, and right now, I have to get down to the lab to oversee the investigation. If you’ll excuse me.” Crane collected his brief case from the desk and approached Heather. “Ms. Addison, follow me, please.”

  Uncomfortably, Heather collected her palmtop and followed him out of the room, mentally formulating dialogue to present to the press. Her concern for B.J. ate away at her. Knowing him as she did, she was all too aware of the anguish he would endure over the little girl he’d been compelled to leave behind. He was unlikely to leave the matter at that.

  Eleven

  Breakdown

  Crane and Heather stepped out of the elevator and approached Tito. He looked up from his diagnostic screen as the entrance doors opened.

  “What the hell happened, Tito?” Crane said.

  “Sir, if you’d like to come over here, there’s something I want to show you.”

  Heather said, “Where’s B.J. now?”

  Tito gestured to the adjacent screen with a longitude-latitude readout displayed. “He’s just heading into Indiana airspace. He hit a sonic boom a minute ago, so he should be here in no time.”

  “So, what do you have to show me?” Crane said.

  Tito pointed to the diagnostic screen. “Since the moment I activated the autopilot to bring B.J. back here, I started going over an analysis of the armor at the time of the incident.”

  “And?”

  “Well, at first, I couldn’t make sense of it. All of the systems were flawless. There was no discernible reason for the failure. That’s when I realized the cause wasn’t coming from the armor.”

  Crane leaned forward with an intense stare. “What are you saying?”

  “Just before you came down here, I ran an analysis on external interference. Watch this.” Tito’s fingers traced the LCD waves on the screen. “This was the status of the sensors and transmitters in the armor before and after the incident. Everything was running perfectly. There were no fault alerts of an
y kind.”

  “So why did it fail?”

  “I’ll show you.” Tito played the diagnostics back again. “Watch carefully.”

  Crane and Heather leaned in closer.

  “Did you see it?”

  “See what?” Crane and Heather chorused.

  Tito played it back again and pointed to one of the curved lines. A tiny blip appeared for a fraction of a second just above the line. It was so fast it was almost impossible to see. “There. Did you see it?”

  “I’m not sure. What am I supposed to be looking at?”

  Tito played it back again. “That tiny blip right there.”

  “OK. What is it?”

  “It’s not the armor, I can assure you, but it coincides exactly with the moment it failed. You can see it on the readout—twelve-twenty-eight, six-point-four seconds p.m.”

  Crane leaned back. “So what are we dealing with?”

  “It’s some kind of external interference that prevented the transmitters from—well—transmitting. All of the sensors are working perfectly, but something else blocked the signals from passing between sensors.”

  “What the hell could’ve caused that?”

  “The frequency analysis seems to indicate the interference was on the electromagnetic spectrum. But there was nothing in the Des Moines area capable of doing that. I checked.”

  “We need an answer pretty damn quick, Tito. Were you listening in on the situation room?”

  “Some of it, but I got to work on looking into the incident as soon as it occurred. What happened?”

  “The bastards put the project on hold, that’s what,” Crane said through gritted teeth.

  Tito’s jaw dropped. “What? They can’t do that.”

  “They can, and they did. That’s why we need to get this blip business to the tech boys, pronto. I want the whole team working round the clock on this until they have an answer.”

  “I’ll get right on it.”

  Crane and Heather accompanied Tito to the technicians’ lab on the far side of the building. After Tito provided the seventy-six man team with the details, recordings, and diagnostic files, they returned to the Testlab to await B.J.’s arrival.