“Help him how?”
“He was never specific. But he mentioned traveling to the desert in a few years on a secret mission. That was all he said.”
Paulson stared hard with his blue eyes, as if trying to read Mattie’s soul.
“Now, Mattie, I have another question for you. Why did you want to help those people on the cruise ship?”
Mattie thought back to the regret he felt. He still had a gnawing in his gut that said he was partially responsible for the deaths of all those people. He should’ve tried to stop Raphael much sooner.
“I didn’t want anyone else to die. Raphael lost control. He . . . he was trying to kill everyone to get away. I made a decision not to go with him. I made a decision to try to save my mother and the other people on the ship. I feel . . . I feel it was my fault.”
Mattie began to sob as he thought about all those people drowning and burning to death. He should’ve done more. He should’ve tried harder.
Paulson dropped a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s all right, Mattie. Raphael had a strong influence on you, and you had no idea what he was going to do. I think you showed courage to break away from him when you did, and you were able to help people as best you could.”
Paulson pulled his hand back as Mattie continued to sob.
“Would you like the chance to redeem yourself?”
“What?” Mattie wiped his tears away. He needed to get himself under control. He was a man and therefore shouldn’t be crying like a little boy.
“I have a proposal for you,” Paulson said. “How would you like to work for me? You’d just be doing small tasks in the office first, dealing with computers and such. Then when you’re old enough, and we’ve given you the proper training, we may move you to other types of operations. It would be part time, of course, so you can finish school. You would be serving your country and helping save lives.”
“And my mother?”
“You’ll be able to live with her. We can put you up in a nice house here on base. The schools are very good, and with your athletic ability, you’ll be a star on all the sports teams. Trust me, you’ll love it.”
It sounded like a good deal. And Mattie did want to make up for the pain and heartache he’d caused. Could he even make up for that? He couldn’t make any of those people live again. Beyond that, another part of him just wanted to grab his mother and run away.
Paulson reached in his pocket and pulled out a photo. It showed a happy family, a boy about Mattie’s age, another boy about ten, a little girl, and their parents. Everyone was smiling, and a brown Lab was lying in the grass in front of them. Paulson pointed to the father.
“This is Sergeant Stanfield, one of the men you killed in the SUV in Lincoln Heights. You punched through his face. This is his family, and these kids are now going to grow up without a father. You know how that feels, don’t you, Mattie?”
Mattie’s eyes began welling with tears again, and they dripped down his cheeks and fell on the photo. He hadn’t wanted to kill that man. He was scared, and Stanfield had been firing, trying to kill him and his mother. What choice did he have? He thought back to the moment, replaying it in his head. He could’ve pulled his punch, he could’ve disarmed the man without killing him. But he didn’t, and for that reason his kids were going to grow up without their father.
“I’ll do it. You have my word,” he said as firmly as he could between tears.
Paulson stood and held out his hand. Mattie stood as well and firmly gripped that hand.
“You’re making the right decision. Welcome to the team, Mattie.”
#
Paulson stepped out of the holding cell and into the hallway and spoke into his radio.
“You can send in the boy’s mother now. And set up a base tour for them. Their house should be ready; see that they sleep in their own beds tonight.”
Evangelista and several others came out of the room beside Mattie’s holding cell. Paulson met them in the hallway. They’d watched his exchange with the boy.
“Are you sure this is a good idea, sir?" Evangelista asked. “We still don’t know enough about what this kid really is. How do we know he’s not lying?”
“We don’t, but what choice do we have? Keep him locked up here forever? Try to kill him? Just let him go? No, this is the right decision. Besides, you’ve read the preliminary report from the neurology team. They believe that since Mattie was infected with the virus as a child, his mind is more resistant to any type of control it tries to exert on him. Their view is that a pre-adolescent’s brain is in flux and cannot be controlled as an adult’s can.”
“Well, that resistance could disappear as he grows older, and then we could be dealing with another Chen creature. That thing took out half our platoon, remember? You and I were lucky to get out alive.”
“Of course I remember.”
Paulson flashed back to that horrible battle, picturing Chen breaking men’s skulls with his hands.
“I think the situation is different with Mattie. His mind is able to control the nanovirus instead of it controlling him. But I’ll tell you this, Tony: if he is faking his sincerity and has some type of ulterior motive, we’ll be ready for him. We’ll adhere to that old advice: keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.”
Paulson stepped away, once again reading the report on Mattie. They needed to do much more research into the changes that the virus had made to his genetic structure. The central question they needed answered was why did the virus make him stronger and yet not kill him? The scientists weren’t sure, but they thought it had something to do with how the virus was programmed. The artificial part of the virus could be programmed to either attack and destroy human cells or repair them. The repair function was what gave Mattie his enhanced speed, strength, and mental abilities. It was also what allowed him to heal at an amazing rate.
If they could figure out the programming behind the virus, they could replicate it and create their own line of supersoldiers. But that would take many decades, if it could even be done. Right now the researchers couldn’t even figure out how the viruses were made, much less how they were programmed. Plus they had to work in the strictest of quarantine facilities. The virus seemed to have adapted or been coded to work only on Mattie, so no one else could be infected with that particular strain of virus. But they didn’t want to take chances. God have mercy on them if that thing got out and mutated.
Paulson had another fear as well: were there others like Mattie? He’d been infected by a robotic recon unit from the future. Had other infected dolls come back as well? Right now they were detecting no communications or energy signatures matching Raphael’s, but that didn’t mean another wasn’t lurking out there, just waiting for its opportunity.
Whoever was behind the viral attack wanted to control the host with this virus strain, not kill them. Which meant that others might right now be under their influence, manipulated like marionettes by some unknown puppet master.
For now no one was controlling Mattie’s strings. How long that would last was anyone’s guess. Paulson hoped he was making the right decision about Mattie .
He was either teaming up with potentially the greatest super soldier in history, or bringing an unstoppable villain into the heart of their operation.
He instinctively reached down and rubbed the hilt of the knife he used to kill Chen. Then his mind drifted to the future. Thirty six years to Extermination Day. Would they be ready?
"Oh yeah," he whispered, answering his own question.
He gritted his teeth and thought about the dead again.
We'll be ready. Those mother fuckers will feel the full power of the greatest military force ever assembled in the history of mankind.
January 15, 2038 won't be humanity's Extermination Day.
It will be theirs.
Part Two
Extermination Day
Thirty-Six Years Later
Chapter 17
Just past Midnight l
ocal time, January 15, 2038
Project Chronos, Lechuguilla Cave
Morning of Extermination Day
Holly Scarborough yawned as she looked at the latest vortex data. It was beamed directly onto her optical nerve as she sat in a comfortable chair deep underground in the heart of the Chronos base. Her mind was entirely absorbed in this virtual world, but her body just couldn’t shake the fatigue that came from long hours of work.
Even with the age prevention and life extension nanovirus treatments, she was still seventy-one years old. Of course, that was becoming middle age now, ever since the advancements Jeff’s biotech company had brought to the public a few years ago.
Holly blinked her eyes and closed the connection to the Chronos mainframe. She needed to take a break and get some nourishment. She had a long day ahead of her and had to stay alert.
Her ergonomic chair automatically rose from a reclining position and she climbed out slowly. Other members of her staff lay beside her, diligently working in their own virtual worlds. She stretched her arms out, moving her blue biomechanical fingers in unison and putting her fingers together to crack her knuckles. Her mechanical knuckles didn’t really need cracking, but it was a habit she couldn’t break.
She stepped out of the control room and into a group of soldiers marching down the hallway.
“’S’cuse us, ma’am,” barked out the leader of the small squad as they parted ranks and moved around her before stepping right back into line.
Holly felt like she was on a military base instead of in a scientific research center. But during these last few days before E-Day, they needed all the security they could muster. Nothing could be left to chance, and the last thing they needed was some unanticipated act of sabotage to destroy their plans.
Holly continued walking and passed Patrick Chen moments later.
“Big day, Holly. I couldn’t sleep either,” he said grimly.
“I hope we’re ready.”
Over the last few years, Chen had begun to look like the Chen she’d left behind nearly forty-six years ago, after her first time jump. Except this time Holly was the senior advisor and co-director of the Chronos facility, not just a twenty-five-year-old intern.
So much was different from the 2038 that she remembered. The technological advances they’d been able to achieve through the study of future technology and the nanobots and nanovirus were incredible. Beyond her wildest dreams really. But all of that would be for naught if they couldn’t survive today, Extermination Day.
Holly had been dreading the day for months. It'd always seemed so far off. The thought of billions dying cut like a knife through her very soul. She hoped the years of preparations would be enough.
As she walked to the cafeteria, an alarm went off that only she and a few others could hear courtesy of the neural link in her brain.. It was the arrival alarm, meaning something was coming through the time vortex. They’d added the alarm a few weeks ago when uptime activity increased dramatically in anticipation of E-Day.
With so much time travel going on, they had to be careful not to disrupt the time stream. Most conversations and exchanges of information were short, and no one had gone back farther than a few months.
However, the most disturbing phenomena was that they'd received no information and no visitors from beyond today. Holly knew that could mean only one thing, that Project Chronos was somehow shut down or disabled on E-Day. Military guards were posted everywhere in the hope such a catastrophe could be prevented. Still, all the precautions, extra personnel, and safety protocols made it difficult to work during these last few months.
If all their other preparations failed, Project Chronos was their last chance.
The alarm continued to reverberate through her skull, and Holly wondered if she should have a look to see what had just come through.
But, no. There were others who could handle that. Right now the growl in her stomach was calling her to a late night snack.
She got in the self-serve line in the cafeteria. About a dozen or so people were sitting around eating and talking. One mother was feeding a baby in a high chair. This time around, Holly made sure the Chronos base was equipped to handle the staff’s family members. If the virus and the nanobots got through their defenses, then she wanted everyone safe underground. Most of the staff had brought their families down three or four days ago, and the base was filling up.
Some teenagers laughed and giggled at a table in the corner, sharing a private joke. Holly guessed they’d probably snuck out of their parents’ rooms.
“Feels like a daycare here instead of a secret government base, doesn’t it?”
Abe Conner read her thoughts as he walked up behind her. She smiled at him.
“You can say that again. I can’t get anything done with all these kids around, and all the extra security protocols, well . . . they’re necessary, but what a pain.”
“Soggy scrambled eggs?” Conner muttered as he scooped out a plateful of eggs. “You’d think they could’ve done a little more for the midnight buffet on the morning of the Apocalypse.”
“Eat it while you can, Conner. If things don’t work out, you may be getting protein pills for a long time.”
Holly tried to joke, but the pressure weighed on her. She studied Conner. He was dressed in his usual tightly pressed white shirt and jeans, and as always his half-eaten palladium cross dangled from his neck. It was the same one he’d worn all those years ago when the nanobots attacked him and Victoria. He’d added a protective iron cover to keep the low levels of radiation in the ore from seeping into his body, but he had no such protection for his heart. Conner had never gotten over losing Victoria.
“How are the preparations coming along?” Conner asked politely. He was never much for small talk, so Holly suspected he was unnerved about what could happen today.
“Everything is good. Everyone has been in place for the last three days. They’re just waiting”—Holly gestured toward the others in the cafeteria—“like we all are.”
“And the bunkers?”
“All Madison Enterprises employees and their families are safe in the corporate bunkers. All government bunkers have also filled up, with the exception of a few stragglers, of course, and everything seems to be going smoothly.”
About a decade ago, Jeff had constructed secure, wholly self-sufficient bunkers with independent water and food supplies and filtered air. All employees and their families, including various VIPs, had filtered into the bunkers throughout the last week, with almost all accounted for three days ago. They wanted everyone secure, in case the attack occurred earlier than expected. They hadn’t wanted to chance the possibility that others had learned to time travel just as they had.
World leaders and dignitaries were going to government-sponsored bunkers in a program coordinated by Vice President Paulson, President Diaz, and their team. Similar underground facilities had been set up for the military as well.
They’d tried to keep everything as quiet as they could to avoid widespread panic, but word was slowly starting to leak out about the bunkers. Holly knew Paulson was an expert at manipulating the streams with false videos and information, so confirmation that the end of the world was happening today wouldn’t likely be verified with any firm evidence.
And how many would believe such a report anyway?
“And Jeff? Is he ready?” Conner asked as they left the serving line and crossed to a table to join Jing Wei and Howard Nichols, two of the senior staff members on the project.
“I think he’d like another decade to prepare,” Holly responded in between bites of scrambled eggs. “It feels like we’ve just run out of time.”
“Holly, you forget we work at Project Chronos.” He twirled a finger over his head. “We have all the time in the world. If we can’t stop the virus, we’ll send someone back in time.”
They could do that, but she was truly disturbed by the lack of communication beyond today. They should at least have some data on what happe
ned after the virus hit this time around, but no one had sent anything back through the time vortex.
“All the time in the world, right, Conner?” Jing Wei said as they sat down. “If that were the case, then why hasn’t Chen let us cut back to forty hours a week instead of the sixty we’ve been working? I think my family has forgotten what I look like.”
“I know what you mean,” Howard cut in. “My daughter pointed at me the other day and asked my wife who was that weird man who slept at their house once or twice a week. She’s a teenager and they think we’re all idiots anyway, but I got the message.”
They continued on with their meal, making small talk about the various projects they were working, trying to avoid any deep discussion about the most pressing issue—the Apocalypse bearing down on them in mere hours.
Yet the truth was, their parts were almost done. They’d either accomplished what they needed to, or they hadn’t. The world’s militaries would be responsible for the next steps.
“Well, I better be heading out,” Howard said, glancing over Holly’s shoulder, his pale, paunchy face starting to sweat despite the coolness of the cafeteria. “I volunteered to be in the group going over to Holloman.”
“Yeah, I saw that message. What’s that all about?” Jing Wei asked, casually flipping her long dark hair out of her eyes.
“Paulson shifting resources at the last minute. Something about security issues and needing personnel in other locations,” Holly said. “He doesn’t even let me know what he’s up to these days.”
“Gotta run. See you on the other side.” Howard got up in a hurry, patting his sweaty bald head with a napkin, glancing toward the cafeteria entrance, leaving his tray and half-eaten meal on the table.
“Well, he’s a little anxious, isn’t he?” Conner said. “I guess we all are today.”
Jing Wei grinned and said, “I thought at least a dozen or so researchers would have flipped out from the stress by now, but I’ve only heard a few—highly unbelievable—stories.”
NanoSwarm: Extermination Day Book Two Page 13
