NanoSwarm: Extermination Day Book Two

by William Turnage

  Moments after Howard left, a military security team came into the cafeteria. The three armed men approached the server working the buffet counter and asked her a question. She pointed at Holly’s table.

  “You know, I gotta run too,” Jing Wei said nervously, knocking over her plate of pancakes as she got up. She flung the sopping pancakes back on her plate. “Just a few last details I need to take care of. See you all later.”

  She hurried away, glancing over her shoulder as the security team approached the table.

  “Dr. Scarborough, Dr. Conner.” The young soldier nodded to them. “Sorry to interrupt your meal, but we’re looking for Dr. Nichols. Have you seen him?”

  “He was just here,” Holly answered. “Left a few minutes before you came in. He’s going out with the group heading to Holloman, so you might not catch him. What’s this about?”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m not at liberty to discuss that matter. Captain Moore’s orders.”

  Moore was head of base security. If he was involved, it must be serious. Holly wondered what Howard could’ve done to have a security team after him. She was the one who’d hired him because she knew what a valuable asset he’d been working on the project during her first timeline. She shuddered as she recalled how he’d died the first time, reaching out to touch the swarm as it entered the vortex room, like it was some sort of friendly animal. He’d been devoured immediately.

  The security team hustled off, and Holly leaned close to Conner.

  “What do you think he did?”

  “Who knows? Moore is a real tight-ass. Poor Howard probably just forgot to disclose something on his background check.”

  Holly exhaled between her teeth, hissing.

  “Like his meth addiction?” she said sarcastically, knowing full well Howard was about as strait-laced as they came.

  Conner rolled his eyes.

  “Yeah, right. I know Howard. He has his addictions, but drugs are not in the mix. You’re more likely to catch him at one of the Apache casinos up near Alamogordo.”

  Holly’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “What’s his game?”

  “I’ve heard he’s into sports betting and horse racing. He told me once that he was working on some type of algorithm that could help him predict the winners. But he’s still working here, so apparently that didn’t pan out so well.”

  Holly chuckled.

  Conner held up his finger, indicating he had a call coming in, and touched the back of his ear. He stared at the table for a second as he listened, then furrowed his brow as though he were trying to solve a complex math problem.

  “What is it, Abe?”

  “I . . . I’m sorry, Holly. I’ve got to run. A test requires my attention in one of the labs.”

  Conner pushed his plate back and got up, hurrying out of the cafeteria.

  Holly shook her head. Everyone was running out on her today. She scooped up her last bite of egg and decided it was time to get some rest. The thought of her soft bed almost made her forget about all that loomed on the horizon.

  Then the vortex alarm rang out again.

  “Shit. I suppose I should get down there this time,” Holly mumbled as she took a few more sips of juice and grabbed a piece of toast for the road. Sleep would have to wait.

  It was a short walk to the vortex room, but Holly had to pass through several security checkpoints. As a military police officer waved her through the scanner, her com-link pinged. She touched her finger to the back of her ear, and Dr. Chen’s voice came through.

  “Holly, you need to get down here right now. A robotic bear recon unit just came through the portal!”

  Holly broke into a run through the long white tunnel to the vortex. Waiting for at her the end, however, was another checkpoint, which must've been added in the last few hours.

  “Goddammit! I need to get in there,” she yelled to the two heavily armed military guards.

  “I’m sorry, Dr. Scarborough, but we have our orders. We’ll just need a retinal and body scan.”

  Holly exhaled angrily and stuck her head out so the young soldier could scan her eye using a handheld device. Then a green beam shot out from a small security drone perched like a crab on the ceiling and quickly zoomed over her body.

  “Clear,” the soldier said as Holly glared at him.

  She knew he was just doing his job, but all these checkpoints and protocols were getting on her nerves. Lack of sleep didn’t help either. The soldier gestured for Holly to move forward and enter the vortex room.

  The huge steel doors slid open to reveal the bright white lab. The vortex ring stood in the middle, about twenty feet high with wires and pipes pouring out from its base like roots. She immediately saw four or five scientists hovering over something lying on one of the tables in the room, a dozen soldiers ringing them in attack position, weapons ready. Chen made room for her as she ran over. On the table lay a charred teddy bear. Half its body was completely burned away and still smoldering. The other half was twitching, and its small paw slowly grabbed at the air over and over.

  Buzzzt.

  Sparks flew from its internal circuits as it tried to speak.

  Buzzzt. “Alert. Get . . . get . . . out.”

  Holly reached out for Chen. His mouth was wide with surprise.

  “Evacuate . . .” Buzzzt. “Now.”

  The bear tried to rise, but it was too heavily damaged. Another spark ignited just behind its eyes, then suddenly its tortured movements came to an abrupt stop and it froze.

  Chen froze too, but only for a second, then he touched the back of his ear.

  “This is Dr. Patrick Chen. Level one red alert. Evacuate immediately. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. Level one red alert. All personnel evacuate!”

  Chen’s voice rang almost immediately from the room’s speakers, repeating the words, he’d just spoken.

  He blinked and tapped the air about a foot and a half in front of his eyes.

  “Lucy, initiate Protocol Alpha.”

  The evacuation alarm sounded—this time for real, not only in Holly’s head—and red lights began blinking all over the room. They’d be flashing all over the complex as well. The Chronos AI, Lucy, was now sending all data, new since the last system core backup, to a remote location.

  Holly looked down at the stiff teddy bear but addressed Chen.

  “Can we trust this thing? We still don’t know what they are.”

  Before Chen answered, the lights on the large vortex doughnut began blinking. Something else was coming through and there was no way to stop it.

  “Do you really want to be around for whatever is coming through next?” Chen asked.

  Holly’s eyes widened as she stared at the vortex. Her heart was racing; they had only moments before the vortex formed.

  Chen grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the exit.

  “Captain Moore, are you coming?” Holly asked one of the soldiers.

  “No, ma’am. We’re here to protect the base at all costs. Whatever comes through that vortex, if it intends to do harm, we’ll be ready for it.”

  Holly wasn’t so sure about that, and she saw doubt in Moore’s eyes as well.

  Holly and Chen, along with the other scientists, bolted out of the vortex room. They ran past all of the now empty checkpoints, down the white hallway, and burst through the doors into the lower level of the control tower. It was chaos with everyone trying to get out. Normally sedate scientists and their families were pushing and shoving, trying to make their way to the three large freight elevators set up for evacuations.

  Military personnel tried to keep order, to no avail. Everyone had forgotten all their careful planning and drills. Holly and Chen managed to get the last spots on one of the elevators, joining about fifty others crammed in there. The elevator doors closed, and the tightly packed box began its speedy rise a mile up to the New Mexico desert floor.

  Chen held his hand out and pressed his palm.

  “Holo
feed, vortex room.”

  A clear 3-D image of the room rose above his hand.

  Holly watched as Captain Moore and his men held their positions with guns raised around the tall doughnut. Nothing happened for ten seconds, twenty, then the vortex began to form. The center of the doughnut, starting as a tiny pinprick, became black, then grew larger until the inside was filled by the darkest of darkness.

  Then something walked through.

  It was a service bot, about five feet tall—a common model. It was vaguely human-shaped, with a head, two arms and two legs, but boxy and bulky. They used them all over the Chronos base to help with cleaning, minor repairs, and the transport of heavy objects. They were smart, but a lot of their processing power was used to move their limbs and navigate, so they were nowhere near as intelligent as the latest nonrobotic AIs.

  This one was holding something.

  It was hard to make out exactly what it was as the bot walked down from the vortex platform into the main chamber.

  “Hold there!” Captain Moore shouted. “State the nature of this time jump.”

  “I was ordered to deliver this package,” the bot intoned in a nondescript male voice.

  “To whom?”

  “To you, Captain Moore.”

  The bot extended its arms, and Moore approached guardedly. Holly and Chen leaned forward to get a better look at the object, just as Moore did. About four feet long and rectangular, it was wrapped in a blanket. Moore kept his weapon raised and eased closer to the bot. He extended his left arm, holding his gun in his right and flipped the blanket open.

  A narrow and rusty torpedo-like device was cradled in the arms of the service bot. Writing on the side appeared to be Russian. A digital clock on top of the device counted down backwards—five . . . four . . . three . . .

  “Holy sh—”

  Moore never got to finish. A blinding flash filled the holo, then the image was gone.

  “That was the core of an old Russian nuclear warhead,” said one of the soldiers who’d been watching the holo.

  Holly turned and immediately recognized the muscular physique and gray crew cut of Tony Evangelista. He was retired from the military, but still provided private security for the base as the head of his own contracting company.

  “Brace for impact,” he said. “Everyone hold on tight!”

  The elevator immediately began shaking. A few people screamed, and Holly grabbed on to Evangelista. A second later the blast impact hit the bottom of the elevator, jolting it violently. Everyone was knocked off their feet and on top of each other.

  The elevator shook as it was jolted from side to side in the shaft. Then the lights went out. People were screaming and grunting as they lay in sweaty piles. Slowly the elevator ground to a halt. Yet it swayed, creaking back and forth.

  Holly had no idea how far they were from the surface, but they weren’t going anywhere now.

  They climbed to their feet in the darkness. Then little flashes of light began popping up as they turned on their holos.

  “Is everyone okay?” Dr. Chen asked.

  Several answered with “yes” and “okay over here.”

  Evangelista prayed quietly beside Holly.

  “All right, people, let’s stay calm. We’re going to be okay,” Chen said.

  The elevator jerked again, just slightly. Then without warning it dropped several feet. Holly felt her stomach fly up into her mouth as others screamed.

  “It’s all right,” Chen yelled out. “The safety brakes are holding.”

  Holly shifted her feet, but found them sticking to the floor. She jostled for space so that she could reach down and touch it, then pulled her hand back immediately. The floor was burning hot.

  The elevator jerked again, and a loud crack reverberated through the box, this time coming from the far side.

  “I don’t think the safety breaks are going to hold much longer,” Holly whispered to Chen as she brushed sweat from her brow in the rapidly warming room. “Plus the floor is red hot. We need to move.”

  Time was running out and nuclear hellfire was burning down below. If they wanted to live, they needed to get out, or the elevator would become their tomb.

  Chapter 18

  4:00 a.m. EST, January 15, 2038

  Madison Enterprises Headquarters, New York

  “We need to bring the Triton Generator.”

  As usual, Jeff was arguing with Franklin Whittenhouse, CEO of MadisonTech, and Franklin was arguing back. The two often didn’t see eye to eye, but Whittenhouse was without a doubt the most brilliant technologist of their time. Jeff was lucky he’d decided to stay on as CEO when Jeff stepped down and assumed the role of chairman. The last thing he needed was Whittenhouse as a competitor. For the most part, Jeff let him run his own show, but there were times when Jeff needed to intervene.

  “Franklin, it’s far too bulky, and space is limited. Besides, you have all the specs and data you need from it.”

  Whittenhouse had grown attached to his latest creation. The Triton Generator could convert sea water into fresh water at a tenth of the cost of conventional methods. It was an amazing invention that would essentially solve the world’s water shortage and turn deserts into lush fertile landscapes. But the device was huge. It could only be transported in pieces via cargo plane. There was no room for it in any of the bunkers or at the Chronos base.

  “It can be re-created,” Whittenhouse said, staring at Jeff, “but so many of the parts have been fine-tuned, it’ll be very difficult and time consuming to recalibrate it exactly.”

  “Franklin, if we all survive until tomorrow, the Triton Generator will still be there safe and sound.”

  “And if we don’t?”

  “Then we’ll have a lot more problems than just a water shortage. Now let’s head out. Holly and Patrick are waiting for us.”

  Jeff grabbed his bag, and Whittenhouse followed. Jeff looked out once more at the spectacular view from his office on the top floor of the World Trade Center. He wondered if this was the last time he would see it. They were set to fly out on one of his corporate jets in a few hours and be safe underground at Project Chronos later in the day.

  It was hard to believe, but Jeff would be repeating history. He would be in the same spot he was forty-six years ago. Only this time, instead of a young thirty-five-year-old freshman congressman, he was an eighty-one-year-old business tycoon, one of the richest men in the world, and a United States Senator from New York.

  Before he time jumped, he never in his wildest dreams would’ve imagined this life for himself. But everything he’d strived for was in preparation for this day, Extermination Day. He’d done everything in his power to prevent the Apocalypse. And now he could only hope and pray it was enough.

  A call came in to Jeff’s com-link implant.

  “Mr. Madison, call from Vice President Paulson.”

  He gently tapped behind his ear.

  “Jeff, there’s been an incident at the Chronos base.”

  The vice president’s voice echoed off Jeff’s auditory nerve as clearly as if he were standing right beside him.

  “Franklin, I’ll meet you downstairs. I need to take this call.”

  Whittenhouse nodded and walked into the elevator.

  “What are you talking about, Buddy?”

  “Look at this footage.”

  Jeff tapped his hand and a holo of the vortex room at the Chronos base appeared. A service bot was standing in front of a group of armed soldiers, holding something. One of the soldiers stepped close to the bot, his face tight with concentration. Then his eyes widened, he said, “Holy shit,” and with a flash of bright light, the room vanished.

  “That happened just a few minutes ago. The service bot time jumped from some unknown point in the future. It was carrying an old Russian nuclear warhead.”

  The impact of those words hit Jeff like a punch in the gut.

  “Jeff, the base appears to be completely destroyed.”

  “Were . . . were the
re survivors?” Jeff managed to stammer out.

  “A group did make it to the evacuation elevators before the bomb went off, but we’ve lost contact with them. If they survived, they’re trapped underground.”

  "And Holly, was she with them?"

  Jeff’s only thought was of Holly. Did she make it to the elevator? Was she still alive? His wife of thirty-four years was the love of his life, part of his soul. He'd just spoken with her this morning when he was unable to sleep. He was feeling just like her, that despite decades of planning, they still weren’t ready for Extermination Day. When they’d first time jumped, forty-seven years had felt like a lifetime, which it was. But it was amazing how so very quickly a lifetime passed. Now he faced the possibility of losing her.

  “We’ve sent a team out to investigate. If there are survivors, we’ll find them,” Paulson said. “In the meantime we’re diverting you to a new location. A chopper will arrive in fifteen minutes. Head to the roof of the building; it’ll pick you up there.”

  “Buddy, who the hell would send a nuke back in time to destroy the base? This old warhead . . . does that mean the Russians are behind the attack?” He shook his head. “Was it the fuckin’ Russians all along?”

  “We’re looking into the possibility. If the group or country that did this left any type of electronic trail, we’ll find them.”

  Jeff knew Paulson had spent almost his entire life trying to figure out who was behind E-Day and now that it was finally upon them, he was no closer than he’d been decades ago. Each clue took them on rabbit trails that ended in a dead end. But Paulson wasn’t the only one frustrated by the search. Jeff too had done his best, but wasn’t able to turn up anything new.

  So he’d resigned himself to the inevitable. E-Day was going to repeat itself, and the most they could hope for would be to survive the attack. As of yet, they had no one to point a gun at, so all their preparations were defensive in nature. But now with the destruction of Project Chronos, it looked like they weren’t going to get a second chance.