John looked at him in suspicion. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘If you won’t help us, I might as well help you. Plus, it might save a few thousand people at the edge of the blast radius.’
John considered the offer, then nodded and gestured for Steiner to lead the way, as they returned to the console John had previously failed to master.
After a minute, the professor had accessed the necessary software and was just about to hand over control to John when the young German shouted in alarm.
‘Eric,’ the professor said. ‘What is it?’
‘Where’s the First Lady?’
John looked around the room. Ashley was nowhere to be seen.
♦
Professor Steiner massaged his eyes. This was all they needed. The First Lady might still be working with the GMRC and they could ill afford for her to be AWOL, especially now of all times.
‘She was here a moment ago,’ Jessica said. She walked over to one of the interior doors and opened it. ‘I saw her over here.’
Captain Radcliffe and his four Darklight soldiers joined her and moved inside to inspect the rooms within.
Brett pointed at the floor. ‘Err, Professor, we’ve got a bigger problem.’
‘The football,’ Steiner said in horror. ‘She’s taken it!’ Movement behind made him whirl round to see the president running towards the bunker’s entrance.
‘Stop him!’ Steiner shouted, but it was too late. The president pushed closed the massive hatch, which shut with a resounding boom, sealing everyone inside.
Samson pushed against the door and shook his head. ‘It’s locked from the outside.’
‘Great!’ Jessica said. ‘Now we’re totally screwed!’
‘There’s one good thing,’ Eric said. ‘I’ve found the football. He pointed to the black case, half concealed under a desk.
Brett strode over and scooped it up. ‘It’s empty.’ She opened the leather satchel for all to see. ‘The metal case inside has gone.’
‘Along with the codes,’ Jessica said.
Steiner looked heavenward and sighed. A little help would be nice, he thought, instantly realising if there was a greater power, they’d already used up all their luck just getting to where they were.
‘I can try and talk him round,’ Bic said from his screen.
Steiner looked at him. ‘Do it,’ he said. He looked at the clock on the wall. ‘And quickly, we’re running out of time.’
Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-Seven
‘There she is!’ Eric said, pointing at the screen.
Steiner looked and sure enough, the First Lady had made it back to the White House, located high above the nuclear bunker in which they now found themselves entombed.
‘I don’t see the president,’ Jessica said.
‘I’ll find him, Jessica Klein,’ Bic said. ‘I’ll find him.’
♦
John Henry left the elevator and peered around a corner, searching for signs of any of Dante’s Secret Service agents who might have remained behind. Satisfied the way ahead was clear, he hurried forward. He was heading for the West Wing, where he hoped Ashley had the sense to go.
Their plan had worked well. Distract their captors with Ashley’s disappearance, which would give John a window of opportunity to escape as well, at least that’s what they’d hoped would happen. No one had been keeping an eye on the First Lady, it was John they were more concerned about losing. And Ashley had taken full advantage of their disinterest by snatching the football, removing the metal case from within its leather bag, and then concealing the empty receptacle further within the bunker, giving John the diversion he needed – once it had been spotted – to also make his escape.
It hadn’t worked out exactly as they’d planned, but the end result had been the same. He and Ashley were out here, and everyone else was in there. He just hoped he still had time to make his address. The closer it got to the time of impact, the fewer people would make it out alive. And from what he’d learnt so far, the impact would happen at approximately a quarter to two in the morning.
He glanced at a clock, which read:
1:09 AM
John broke into a run and was soon entering the empty Press Corps Offices, and then the Briefing Room after that.
With still no sign of Ashley, he ran down the hall towards the Oval Office.
A murmur of voices came from within; John slowed to listen and then relief flooded through him. He strode inside to find Ashley deep in conversation with the one man he’d been hoping to see, Paul Brown, his Chief of Staff.
Paul looked up from where he stood at the Resolute Desk. ‘John, thank God. Ashley didn’t know if you’d make it out.’
‘You got the football?’ John said to his wife.
Ashley pointed to the case nearby.
‘Good girl,’ he said. He felt like kissing her, but then he remembered her affair. His expression darkened and Ashley looked away in shame.
‘Ashley says you want to make an address,’ Paul said.
John nodded.
‘Then it’s just as well, it’s all set up to go.’ Paul gestured to the camera.
‘How did you—’
‘Know? I saw the asteroid,’ Paul said, guiding John to his seat behind the desk. ‘When I saw it, I knew you were right. I went back in to find you, but then all hell broke loose. I didn’t know what to do,’ – Paul brushed the dirt off John’s shirt – ‘so I went back outside and realised I could do more good if I was back here.’
John sat down. ‘Do you have any news?’
‘They’re saying you murdered the EU president and took the Chinese premier hostage.’
John gave a shake of his head in disbelief. ‘Is it war?’
‘It looks that way. Where is everybody? Where’s the Secretary of Defense?’
John shook his head. ‘I don’t know, back at the Capitol?’
‘Shouldn’t we be leaving the country?’ Ashley said. ‘From what the terrorists said, the asteroid’s almost here.’
Paul looked at her and then back at John. ‘How long do we have?’
John looked him in the eye. ‘Thirty-five minutes.’
‘Jesus.’ He attached a microphone to John’s shirt. ‘Marine One is out back. We can leave as soon as you’re done.’
John shook his head. ‘I’m not leaving. Not now. The people need me.’
Paul moved to the broadcast equipment and flicked some switches. ‘Do we know how big it is?’
‘The asteroid is smaller than AG5,’ Bic said, appearing on the nearby wallscreen. ‘But the blast will annihilate Central and Eastern states. Fires will sweep the land and whatever’s left of your country will experience the fallout from another impact winter. Few will survive.’
‘Are we ready?’ John said, ignoring the hacker.
Paul dragged his gaze away from Bic, who now displayed the devastating footage of AG5’s impact on screen.
‘You can still stop the asteroid, Mr President,’ Professor Steiner said, appearing next to the footage. ‘Please, let us help you.’
‘We’re going live in one minute,’ Paul said.
‘Why do you think the GMRC want to stop us, Mr President?’ Steiner said. ‘It’s because they don’t want us to succeed.’
‘And why’s that?’ John said, humouring him.
‘There is another power manipulating the GMRC from within and they will stop at nothing to create a global government which they control.’
John looked at the screen.
‘You know I’m right, don’t you?’ Steiner said. ‘You fear the same thing as I. Why do you think the GMRC and Secret Service tried so hard to keep you isolated? It was to keep us apart. We had to resort to abducting you to get you on your own. And everything that we told you would come to pass, has come true.’
‘Thirty seconds,’ Paul said.
‘They know together we are stronger,’ Steiner said from the screen. ‘Join us. Join us and save our people.’
P
aul waved at John to get his attention. ‘Twenty-five seconds.’
John stared at the professor and knew he was right about the GMRC.
‘The enemy of my enemy,’ Steiner said.
‘Is my enemy,’ said a new voice.
John turned to see Agent Dante standing in the doorway. His nose was bloodied and misshapen and his eyes burned with a lust for violence. He held a gun in his hand and the room fell silent.
Ashley backed away from him and Dante switched off the wallscreen.
‘Ten seconds,’ Paul said.
Dante turned his gun on the Chief of Staff. ‘Cut the transmission.’
Paul hesitated and Dante fired.
‘NO!’ John said, surging to his feet.
‘SIT DOWN!’ Dante pointed the gun at him.
John remained standing, looking at Paul, who lay on the floor, unmoving, a pool of blood spreading out from under him.
Dante ripped the cables out of the camera and fired a shot into the desk. ‘I said sit down!’
John held up his hands and sat back down.
‘What did the GMRC offer you?’ John said. ‘Money – power?’
‘Along with a new life underground,’ Dante said. He looked at Ashley. ‘And your wife.’
‘I’m not theirs to give,’ Ashley said defiantly.
Dante laughed. ‘She didn’t tell you, did she, John? She was paid by the GMRC to sleep with you, to control and keep an eye on you. She’s been relaying them information ever since you met.’
John stared at Ashley who had tears in her eyes.
Dante laughed again and looked at the First Lady. ‘I think he hates that more than us fucking.’
‘You were my friend,’ John said, between clenched teeth.
‘No. You wanted to be my friend. I tolerated you and let you play cards with my men when we couldn’t stand the sight of you.’
‘You slept with my wife!’
‘I’m a killer, John. Do you think I gave it a second thought? I fucked her good and long and loved every second of it. I can still taste her when I go to sleep at night. She used to laugh and say it would turn you on. Did it, John, did it turn you on?’ Dante grasped Ashley and ran his hand over her breasts.
‘Get off me!’ Ashley said, trying to escape his grasp.
‘She loves it rough. Really rough, and it’s not like you didn’t cheat on your exes. Some of them had husbands, didn’t they? You’re a hypocrite, John. How does it feel to realise we’re just same, you and I?’
‘I’m nothing like you.’
‘No John, you’re a loser. You always have been and always will be,’ – he pointed the gun at him – ‘and I’m a winner.’
John looked at Ashley in despair.
The First Lady let out a scream and knocked Dante sideways. The gun fired and a bullet whizzed past John’s head.
Dante punched Ashley to the floor. John let out a howl of fury and launched himself at his one-time friend.
John’s momentum carried Dante back into the wallscreen, cracking the glass. The gun fell from his hand and Dante grasped John round the waist and hurled him across the Resolute Desk. Striding round, the Secret Service agent grasped John by the hair, as he struggled to rise.
‘You don’t look too good, John,’ Dante said and punched him in the face.
John sagged against the desk and Dante hauled him up and swung again. Pain tore through John’s mouth and he fell to the floor. Blood dripped from his lip and he spat out a tooth.
The pulsating throb of multiple helicopters reverberated through the Oval Office and Dante dragged John back to his feet and grasped his face to show him the scene outside.
GMRC aircraft landed on the White House lawn and grey-clad soldiers disembarked in their droves. And, striding among them, wearing a black exoskeleton, was the tall figure of the Director of Intelligence, Malcolm Joiner.
‘Looks like someone disabled the White House security systems,’ Dante said. He grasped John round the neck and squeezed.
John’s vision blurred as his airway constricted, and he grasped at Dante’s bulging bicep as he fought to breathe.
Dante increased the pressure. John’s face turned purple and he opened his mouth, gasping for air that wouldn’t come.
‘I’m going to enjoy this, John,’ Dante whispered in his ear. He grasped John’s head with his other hand. ‘And after you’re dead, I’m going to enjoy your whore of a wife one more time.’
John looked at Ashley who remained unmoving on the floor.
‘Goodbye, John,’ Dante tensed, and then BANG! A gunshot broke the silence, followed by a second and a third. Dante’s grip loosened and John fell to the floor and sucked in a shuddering breath, filling his lungs.
Dante collapsed next to him, bleeding from gunshot wounds to his arm and neck.
On his hands and knees, John looked round to see Paul lying on the floor, holding Dante’s discarded weapon. His Chief of Staff dropped the gun with a clatter and John struggled over to him.
‘Paul.’ He shook his friend, as his eyes drifted closed. ‘Paul, stay with me.’
‘John?’
‘Yes, it’s me.’
Paul grasped John’s hand. ‘Don’t let them win, John,’ he said, and his bloodied hand squeezed tighter.
John felt his eyes welling with tears. His best friend was dying and there was nothing he could do. ‘I won’t,’ he said. ‘I’ll never stop fighting. You should know that by now. I’m like a dog with a bone.’
Paul managed a laugh and then his grip loosened and his eyes grew still.
John hung his head and screwed up his face up to fight back the grief that sought to overwhelm him. He then reached out and closed his friend’s eyes and picked up the gun.
John walked over to Dante and rolled him onto his back with a foot.
‘What are you going to do?’ Dante pressed his hand to the gaping wound in his neck in a vain attempt to stem the flow of blood. ‘Shoot me?’ He laughed and then coughed, and more blood oozed from his mouth. ‘You haven’t got the guts.’
John gave a derisive snort. ‘Agent Dante,’ he said, and threw the gun away, ‘your services are no longer required.’
John turned away and helped Ashley to her feet as she recovered from Dante’s assault.
‘You can’t win,’ John,’ Dante said, as they left the Oval Office. ‘You’ll never win!’
John helped Ashley down the hallway and glanced outside to see GMRC troops converging on the West Wing.
‘Go,’ Ashley said and pushed him forward.
‘I’m not leaving you.’
‘Why? After all I’ve done to you?’
John looked at her. ‘Because I love you.’
‘We don’t love each other, John. We love the sex. We hate each other. I hate myself. I’m no good for you, I never have been. I never will be.’
‘Don’t say that.’ He touched her face.
‘Why not?’ She wiped away a tear. ‘It’s true.’ She managed a small smile. ‘It’s probably the first time I’ve ever said what I really feel.’
John kissed her forehead. ‘Better late than never.’
‘You better go to the bunker,’ she said. ‘You can still make a difference.’
He stared into her beautiful eyes and smiled.
‘What?’ she said, embarrassed.
He kissed her again and gave her a hug. ‘Nothing, you’re right, I just wish—’
‘John Henry!’ Bic appeared on a nearby screen and they both looked round. The hacker pointed behind them. ‘LOOK OUT!’
John turned to see a shimmering form striding towards them. A glittering sword plunged towards his head and Ashley pushed him aside. The sword punched through his wife’s chest and exploded from her back in a spray of blood.
‘NO!’ John watched Ashley fall to the floor, dead.
Ophion Nexus materialised before him and put the sword to his throat. ‘Your time has come,’ Ophion said from behind his mirrored visor.
John stared int
o the face of death, and it was his own.
Ophion drew back his sword and rammed into the wall next to the John’s head.
A moment later Ophion let him go and turned to leave, while John’s eyes strayed to Bic’s screen where the hacker had left a message which read:
HE CAN’T SEE YOU.
RUN!
John took one last look at his dead wife and then ran towards the White House residence.
♦
Ophion whirled round, focusing on the sound of footsteps, but there was no one there – at least, no one he could see. He looked back at the body of John Henry and frowned, then reached up, grasped his helmet and removed it. There was no body at all. He looked at the image of Bic, which had reappeared on screen.
‘You’ve been deceiving me,’ Ophion said, his eyes narrowing.
‘I won’t let you kill him, Ophion Nexus,’ Bic said.
‘I knew the president was too fortunate when he avoided my initial assault at the Capitol,’ Ophion said, turning to the doors where John had made his escape. ‘He never posed a clean target in the Conference Room, which I took for blind luck, but he should have died in the corridor. I never miss at such close range.’ Ophion threw his helmet aside and set off after the president. ‘It won’t happen again.’
♦
Professor Steiner and everyone else trapped in the bunker watched in helpless horror as the president fled through the White House, his staggering steps guiding him to where they waited.
‘He’s not going to make it,’ Jessica said.
‘Maybe the GMRC will stop Ophion?’ Eric pointed to where Joiner’s soldiers entered the West Wing.
‘No, they’re too far away,’ Bic said. ‘He’s on his own now.’
‘Then he’s as good as dead,’ Samson said.
Brett turned away. ‘He’s right, he’s already gone.’
Steiner looked to the screens on his right, which showed more of Joiner’s men arriving to encircle the White House. And to the left, more screens streamed footage of the Chinese and European fleets facing off against U.S. ships in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, while others displayed GMRC armies mustering at the Mexican and Canadian borders.
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 115
