Revelations

by Robert Storey

  The intelligence director remained silent, but Steiner could see the cogs turning behind those cold, calculating eyes.

  ‘I take it you know I have secured the services of a civilian contractor?’ Steiner asked him.

  ‘I heard it mentioned.’

  ‘I thought you might have done,’ Steiner said, wondering what else Joiner was hiding from him.

  A sliding door opened behind them and they all looked in its direction. Three men had entered. They each wore a full suit of black state of the art body armour, and MX4 rifles hung from slings around their necks. The leader was tall and heavily built, with a face which looked like it was hewn from granite. A nasty scar ran down the middle of his face, a small bit of his nose was also missing as the scar carried on down to his chin.

  ‘Ah, Commander, it’s good of you to come up to see me.’

  ‘Not a problem, Professor,’ the man said, his voice deep and powerful.

  ‘Gentlemen, this is Commander Hilt,’ Steiner said, ‘he and his division will now be taking charge of the weapons systems and security details here at Steadfast.’

  Joiner’s face looked like it was very slowly being inflated from the inside as his eyes bulged at the sight of the man before him.

  ‘Nathan Bryant,’ Nathan said, leaning forward and shaking the commander’s hand. ‘I didn’t realise there was such a large Darklight contingent in these parts, Commander. A division: that’s ten thousand men, isn’t it?’

  ‘We do operate covertly at times, Mr Bryant,’ the Darklight officer said, sidestepping the question, ‘and our base locations and troop movements are not always divulged.’

  ‘Aren’t the Joint Chiefs going to be a little put out by you taking over their main duties?’ Nathan looked from Steiner to Hilt, and then to Joiner, who still hadn’t said anything.

  ‘They won’t have a choice,’ Steiner said. ‘It’s my show and what I say goes.’ Here, in any case, he thought to himself.

  ‘Our men are relieving them of duty as we speak, Professor,’ Hilt told him.

  ‘Very good, Commander, thank you.’

  Hilt nodded and left; his two men, however, stayed flanking the door on either side of Steiner’s new command post.

  Chapter Eight

  The door slammed hard as Joiner burst into his office. How the fuck did Steiner get Darklight into Steadfast so quickly? he thought, heart racing. And how did they avoid the blocks I ordered the military to impose on traffic and flight routes into Steadfast? Enraged by the deception, Joiner’s blood seethed through his veins like acid. I need the base under my control if I’m to extract key personnel and equipment to Sanctuary.

  The question he should have been asking himself was why had the professor really called in the mercs? It suddenly dawned on him: he knows – Steiner knows! Joiner didn’t know how he’d done it, but he’d found out the asteroid’s telemetry had been altered. He must react, and quickly, otherwise word might get out and his careful preparations would be compromised.

  Joiner knew he wouldn’t be able to acquire reinforcements to deal with the threat fast enough, and yet the base still had a U.S. military presence underground, which he could control. He checked his digital mailbox for the latest Steadfast intelligence reports. According to a base-wide personnel count, the influx of mercenaries was more substantial than he had initially feared, but fortunately Steadfast was heavily garrisoned and U.S. forces still outnumbered them by four to one. Steiner was craftier than he’d thought; he had underestimated him. Joiner calmed his racing thoughts, focusing his mind on the problem at hand. He picked up the phone and dialled a number.

  ‘Yes?’ a man answered.

  ‘General, as you’re no doubt aware Professor Steiner has managed to flood Steadfast with civilian contractors who now hold key positions throughout the base. What you don’t know is that Steiner is now also privy to certain information that poses a direct threat to the United States and its allies. This information cannot be allowed to be disseminated as it will jeopardise the whole programme, and therefore he cannot be left in command.’

  ‘That may prove difficult,’ the general said, ‘he is in charge on a global scale. People might notice if he’s suddenly not on the scene.’

  ‘Steiner’s role is nearly at an end, he won’t be missed for long and a stress-related illness will prove an adequate cover story.’

  ‘What do you propose?’

  ‘A swift strike on Darklight positions and the Command Centre, along with the extraction and detainment of Professor Steiner and other key personnel.’

  ‘Engaging Darklight forces will result in casualties on both sides,’ the general said, ‘and civilian lives will also be put in jeopardy. Is this something you really want us to commit to?’

  ‘We have no choice, the alternative is unthinkable.’

  There was a long pause.

  ‘General?’ Joiner said.

  ‘Very well, I’ll keep you apprised.’

  ‘Don’t bother. I’ll be sending in my own men to oversee critical targets.’

  ‘That won’t be necessary,’ the general said, his tone stiffening.

  ‘It is, General; do you have a problem with that or should I contact your colleagues? They might like to know how you’ve been spying on them and manipulating their careers to suit your own ends.’

  ‘You snide little worm, it was you who helped me!’

  ‘I don’t suppose you have any proof of such heinous claims?’ Joiner said, amused.

  The general said nothing, but Joiner could sense his fury.

  ‘I take it that’s a “no” then. Oh, and General, let’s be clear; I’m in charge here, not you or the Joint Chiefs. I’ll be in touch.’ Joiner hung up the phone.

  ♦

  Goodwin sat relaxing in his office chair, soaking up the forest scene around him. The familiar sounds washed over him as he closed his eyes; he gave a loud yawn and stretched out his arms and legs, easing away his stress. As he let his mind wander, his door burst inwards with a BANG, making his eyes flare open and stomach clench.

  His secretary, Leah, stood in the doorway, wild-eyed. ‘You better come out here!’

  Confused and annoyed by the disturbance, he jumped up out of his chair and followed her into reception. At the window she pointed down below, where people ran in all directions.

  ‘What on earth—’ His voice petered out as from across a plaza to the right fifty men garbed in black appeared, moving backwards at speed with guns raised. The unmistakable shots of automatic gunfire rang out, coupled with bursts of muzzle flash expelled by the weapons. They both watched in horror as U.S. military troops erupted from either side of the retreating Darklight personnel. Men fell on both sides, some dropped like stones while others writhed in agony. What was a normal pedestrian scene had turned into a bloodbath as the two sides fought for a foothold.

  Goodwin’s adrenalin surged. He grabbed an arm of the mesmerised Leah and dragged her from the room and into the corridor. Panic was in the air. People’s screams echoed up from the atrium below as they ran for cover. Darklight troops ran towards the gunfight, dodging in and out of people fleeing in the opposite direction. Goodwin headed up a staircase to the floor where he knew the professor’s team was housed. Leah had other ideas and shrugged off his grip.

  ‘Leah, where are you going?’ he shouted after her, but she’d already dashed off into the melee, heading towards the back of the building. The shooting down below intensified and grew ever louder.

  ‘Richard!’

  Goodwin looked round and saw the professor striding towards him flanked by his one remaining bodyguard. He wasn’t sure where his own had disappeared to.

  ‘Where are your guards?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ Goodwin said, in shock. ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘It seems our beloved Joiner is trying to wrest control away from me. I don’t have time to explain, but you must gather as many people as you can and rendezvous with Commander Hilt in the forest outpost.’

/>   ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘I must stay here and unlock the elevators so you can get out.’

  ‘Get out, to where? The surface? What are you talking about?’

  ‘Just do as I say, Richard, please.’

  Before Goodwin could ask him anything else, gunshots exploded inside the building.

  ‘Go!’ Steiner said. ‘I’ll contact you on your phone to explain everything to you, now go!’

  The professor turned and ran back down the corridor, closely shadowed by his protector.

  Goodwin ducked as a bullet ricocheted off a pillar nearby, and he found himself running towards the back of the building to where all the other workers had fled. He rattled down another staircase and burst out of the doors, trying to get his bearings.

  Before he’d decided on his next move, a massive transport vehicle screeched to halt fifty yards away and another two followed it.

  The Darklight commander, Hilt, leaned out the door of the first vehicle with a megaphone. ‘This is an evacuation emergency! Please make your way to Bio Chamber Five, BC5!’

  Goodwin ran over as others from all around came streaming onto the passenger buses. As Goodwin reached one, his phone – and everyone else’s – sounded a high pitched alarm. It was a Command Centre Alert message. The screen flashed and read:

  PROTOCOL 9

  BASE EVACUATION

  PROCEED TO YOUR

  DESIGNATED SECTOR

  FOR SURFACE EVAC

  THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

  RELOCATE TO EVAC SECTOR: BC5

  Goodwin knew the professor had activated the alert, but if what he said about Joiner was true then the military would be cutting off access routes as fast as they could.

  ‘Where’s the professor?!’ Hilt said, raising his voice over the bedlam.

  ‘He’s back in there!’ Goodwin pointed to the Command Centre. ‘He’s trying to unlock the elevator shafts and surface exits.’

  Hilt swore and got on his radio. ‘Major Davis, I need as many men as you can spare to the Command Centre a-sap.’

  ‘Roger that,’ came a swift reply.

  Hilt gestured Goodwin onboard and the vehicles struck out for the Forest at full tilt.

  ♦

  Samson’s anger simmered within, like a volcano ready to erupt. His superior had ordered him to let SOG, the CIA’s Special Operations Group, lead the grunts in securing the Command Centre, which had since been reinforced by more Darklight troops. Ordinarily he’d have been pumped at an imminent combat situation; instead he felt deflated. He’d begun to suspect his commanding officers of being influenced by an outside source, perhaps even by that slippery bastard intelligence agent, Malcolm Joiner. Still, he told himself, orders are orders. His team, SFSD – Special Forces Subterranean Detachment, also referred to as Terra Force – had instructions to rendezvous at the building, after having secured a nearby elevator shaft from Darklight control. This first objective had been easy; Darklight might pay well, but the U.S.S.B.s were afforded the pick of the best men and the elite Terra Force was no exception.

  Their armoured transport roared into the huge central plaza which encircled the Command Centre on the lowest chamber. The men inside stood holding onto hand straps hanging from the roof; all were fully equipped in a similar fashion to the black-clad Darklight forces, but they’d had time to attach further protective armour for the assault. Their dark grey and green kit had a matte finish and many bore the scars of previous engagements with hostile forces, indicating to any observer their battle-hardened credentials.

  The vehicles’ sides shot upwards, allowing the soldiers to all disembark at once, and the noise of many heavy boots hitting the floor momentarily filled the air. Bodies littered the ground around them; most had been armed, but a few civilians lay amongst the dead. This didn’t disturb Samson as he’d seen it all many times before, and worse, much worse.

  The SOG’s commander was organising U.S. military forces as Samson and his team approached.

  ‘Ah, Colonel, good of you to join us. I’ll need your team to be the tip of the spear on entry; your men look equipped for the job, good.’

  ‘And you are?’ Samson said.

  ‘Agent in charge Myers. You can call me sir.’

  Samson ignored him, although a vision of his fist smashing the man’s teeth through the back of his head flashed up in his mind.

  Agent Myers held up his hand to Samson indicating he wanted quiet as he put his other hand to his earpiece. ‘Yes, sir,’ Myers said and then waited as further instructions were relayed to him. ‘Where is it located?’ A pause. ‘Okay, and the principal target?’ Another pause. ‘Right. Yes, sir, I’ll contact you when it’s done.’

  Gunshots rang out once more inside the building they now had surrounded on all chamber levels. Agent Myers turned back to Samson, whose patience was ready to snap.

  ‘Well?’ Samson said.

  ‘We need to cut the outgoing hard lines and wireless antennae array. You’ll find them on level thirty-eight, rooms eighteen through to twenty-two. My man Henson,’ – he indicated an agent over to his right – ‘will guide you through the process. “Cut” doesn’t mean physically chopping them in two; there are large lever handles to pull down, which will do the job.’

  ‘Really?’ Samson said, his voice loaded with scorn. ‘I would never have guessed.’

  Before Myers could respond Samson turned his back on him and addressed his men.

  ‘You heard the S.O.G.,’ Samson said, with a derogatory inflection which made a few of his men smirk. ‘We’re point, load up. Look and shoot sharp. We move.’

  Terra Force dropped their visors as one, shouldered weapons and advanced on the building as the regular base troops parted to let them through.

  ♦

  Darklight personnel waited in nervous anticipation for the inevitable assault on the building’s upper levels. They had been bolstered by their initial success in repelling attempts to breach their lines, but spotters had witnessed the arrival of a heavily shielded Terra Force detachment and morale had fallen in response.

  Major Davis walked amongst his men offering encouragement and issuing orders. He knew they hadn’t the numbers to hold for much longer, but his commander’s final order was clear: hold at all costs. Major Davis moved down a corridor and entered a control room. He approached the GMRC head honcho, Professor Steiner, who furiously tapped on a keyboard while computer code flashed by on a screen in front of him.

  ‘Do we really need to fight on, Professor?’ Davis said. ‘It’s only a matter of time before they overwhelm us and Special Forces are moving in.’

  ‘Major,’ the professor said without turning round, ‘I would not ask anyone to lay down their life if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Many more lives are in danger and I need to get these elevators and surface exits unlocked and overridden. The base must be evacuated before it’s too late.’

  ‘Too late for what?’ Davis said.

  The professor looked directly at him, his gaze determined and unwavering. ‘That I cannot tell you, but believe me, you will be saving many lives by what you do now.’

  Davis sighed. ‘Very well, Professor, you obviously know what you’re doing. We’ll try and give you as much time as we can.’

  ‘Thank you, Major,’ the professor said, with heartfelt gratitude, and he resumed his task.

  A shout came from down below as Major Davis moved back into the corridor. An eruption of blasts and gunfire signalled the final assault had begun. Davis took a small photo out of a pocket and kissed it before tucking it away, cocking his weapon and lowering his visor.

  ‘Men, on me!’ He commanded two soldiers who’d been guarding the room. Davis led them through a side exit into a stairwell and down. At the bottom one of his team lay unmoving as blood seeped onto the pristine white marble floor around him. The fighting was frenetic. Bullets flew through the double doors and zinged past his head. Another of his men went down before they were able to engage the enemy.

&
nbsp; Davis took aim at one of many Terra Force targets on offer. He only had one clip of armour-piercing rounds so he had to make them count. Firing off shots, he cycled from target to target, taking down one and injuring three more. The rifle’s bolt locked back and he dropped the clip and slammed in another. A bullet hit him in the shoulder, shifting his weight back.

  He glanced around to see he was the last man standing. With no more time to think, he grabbed two grenades from his belt, dialled the time to five seconds, flicked off the pins and threw them into the main foyer. As they detonated, he made to head back the way he’d come, but he heard the telltale noise of a small metallic object bouncing off the hard floor nearby. Too late! he thought, before a lethal blast ripped him from his feet.

  ♦

  Samson moved the body of a Darklight officer out of his way with his foot, barely noticing the image of a mother and child as a photo dropped to the floor from the dead man’s hand. He moved on up the stairs. U.S. forces had taken control and many Darklight soldiers had fallen, but some had been disarmed and rounded up for detention so the powers that be could decide what to do with them.

  Samson didn’t like or dislike killing, but he was good at it, very good. He knew his men called him The Reaper behind his back, but they knew better than to say it to his face.

  They’d managed to shut down the communication lines and array in the Command Centre, although Myers wasn’t happy as Steiner had managed to open up access to some of the elevator shafts and upper access doors and had then frozen the system so they couldn’t be resealed.

  ‘Where is the professor?’ the CIA man asked him as he approached.

  ‘Over there.’ Samson pointed at a small room.

  Myers went over to it and relieved the agent within, who went and stood guard outside. Samson followed him in. Myers noticed his presence, but said nothing. In front of them, Steiner sat on a chair behind a small table, a smashed console before him.