‘What?’ Myers said, coming to a stop next to the officer. ‘What did you just say?’
Samson turned to look through his visor at Myers. ‘He said ... my name’s Colonel Samson.’
Myers gaped at the sight of the man before him and shook his head. ‘You’re dead.’
Samson grinned, the effect mirroring the madness in his eyes.
‘Jesus Christ.’ Myers took a step back. ‘You’re dead.’
‘He’s not, sir,’ the officer said, bemused. ‘His armour’s busted up, sure, but he’s still breathing, just like you and me.’
Samson glanced left and then right at the men around him, as they looked at Myers’ strange reaction.
Myers pointed at him and then reached for his rifle. ‘Kill him!’
‘What?’ the officer said, confused.
Myers grasped his rifle and Samson surged to his feet and rammed his head into the man holding him.
‘I SAID, KILL HIM!!’
Samson seized the soldier next to him and swung him round to use as a human shield, as Myers fired.
Bullets peppered the soldier’s armour and Samson tossed a high-yield grenade into their midst.
Myers’ eyes grew wide and Samson bared his teeth and said, ‘Let’s play!’
Chapter Two Hundred Forty-Five
An explosion outside the blast doors shook the room and Steiner looked at the footage to see a mass of black and white pixels. Whatever had happened outside had taken out the surrounding cameras.
Steiner glanced at the countdown clock again:
He looked back to where Jessica and Eric said their last goodbyes to Brett, the peaceful expression on the ex-FBI agent’s face a picture of serenity amid the chaos.
Elsewhere, the bodies of the five Darklight soldiers lay where they’d fallen, brave men who’d given their lives at Steiner’s behest. Yet more people I’ve led to their death, he thought, the list seemingly never-ending.
Jessica left Eric by Brett’s side to grieve. It seemed they’d both cared for the ex-FBI agent more than they’d cared to admit. Jessica moved to Captain Radcliffe’s unmoving form, her expression distraught as she wiped a tear from her eye.
There were only five of them left alive within the bunker now: John Henry, the Chinese premier, Jessica, Eric and Steiner himself. Six, if you included Bic, whose image remained on the cracked, bullet-riddled wallscreen.
The hacker’s image flickered and warped before stabilising. ‘They’re trying to cut all communication lines,’ Bic said. ‘The net is closing in.’
The Chinese premier, Liang Junhui, came to stand by Steiner and John Henry at the main console.
‘It seems the GMRC has won,’ Liang said.
No one spoke as the countdown clock continued its inevitable decline to zero.
Steiner looked at the Chinese premier’s impassive expression and then at John Henry, standing next to him.
The president looked as exhausted as Steiner felt and the worst was yet to come. At least the Subterranean Programme is safe, Steiner thought. Mankind will live on, below ground. He just prayed that existence wouldn’t be forged in the Committee’s image. His thoughts turned to Selene Dubois, the woman who claimed to have murdered his wife in an attempt to get a young Steiner to focus his talents on a Subterranean Programme in the making. How can I let such people rule? He closed his eyes and asked God the same question, but there was no reply. Perhaps, Steiner reasoned, because, like anything, such power remains God’s alone to wield, not mere mortals such as me. The thought was depressing, but he knew God had a plan for everyone; it was just sometimes it didn’t seem that way, especially when dark forces tried to forge a future for their own benefit. But, at the end of the day, all anyone could do was their best, as that’s all there was – Steiner continued to stare as the seconds ticked away – that’s all there could be.
♦
John Henry watched as the time until impact grew ever smaller. ‘Is there nothing we can do?’
The professor gave him an incredulous look.
‘I mean, without the hacker’s help?’
‘No.’ The professor shook his head. ‘We could try, but we wouldn’t get very far. We need him to access the necessary communication channels to the rest of the world, not to mention accessing the launch systems for the missiles themselves. The strike needs to be coordinated and, as we have no time or manpower to devise it ourselves, we’d be relying on his skills to organise and deliver the appropriate computer code when the time came.’
‘It is true,’ Bic said. ‘I am essential to your success.’
‘And our ultimate failure,’ John said, glaring at the terrorist.
‘Also true, John Henry,’ Bic said. ‘However, it might surprise you,’ – he raised his voice – ‘surprise you all, that I think I have found a way to solve all our problems.’
Still nursing her injured shoulder, Jessica moved closer. ‘What? How?!’
Bic smiled and said, ‘Let me show you.’ A blurry grey photograph appeared on the wallscreen, next to Bic’s image.
‘What am I looking at?’ John said, peering at it.
‘The key to changing your mind, Mr President,’ Bic said, his expression exultant. ‘The key to our success!’
John saw a look of realisation steal over the professor’s face as he worked out what he was looking at. ‘Bic, no!’
‘Professor?’ Jessica said, shocked. ‘What’s wrong?’
The professor fixed Bic with a menacing glare. ‘Do not do this.’
‘I’m sorry, Professor Steiner, but you knew this time might come. You have to decide which way to jump. Are you with us, or against us?’
‘What’s he talking about?’ Eric said.
John looked at Steiner and then to the hacker. ‘Tell us what you know. What are you keeping from us?’
‘Eric and Jessica already know of what I speak,’ Bic said.
Eric gave the hacker a weary look. ‘We do?’
‘Get on with it!’ Jessica said, her desperate hope reignited.
‘Forgive me,’ Bic said. ‘The screen has been quite badly damaged, let me adjust the resolution.’
The image sharpened and John’s eyes widened. ‘Are they what I think they are?’
‘If you think they’re five more asteroids following in the wake of the one about to impact, Mr President,’ Bic said, ‘then yes, that’s exactly what they are.’
John shook his head and laughed, but no one else shared his hysteria; grim faces stared back at him.
‘This can’t be. Six asteroids?’
‘It can,’ the professor said. ‘And it is.’
The words reminded John of a conversation he’d had with his late friend, Paul Brown, regarding the water shortage, except this time there could be no solution.
John stared at the image, his mind momentarily stunned into inactivity. Six more asteroids, he thought. Not one, but six. Is this for real? He looked at the expressions of those around him and, save for Liang Junhui, who looked as shocked as John himself, the truth was as plain as the noses on their faces.
‘Then what’s the point?’ John said in despair. ‘Stopping one is pointless.’
‘We can stop five of the six,’ Steiner said, casting the hacker a furious look, ‘but we need your help. We need the United States to restart the Space Programme and intercept missions.’
‘Space Programme?’ John said. ‘Intercept missions? Are you all insane?!’ He pointed at the screen. ‘The United States is about to be obliterated!’
‘Just so, John Henry,’ Bic said, holding his gaze. ‘Just so.’
John stared at the hacker and then understood his ploy. ‘You think by telling me the world is going to end anyway that I’ll give you what you want. That’s it, isn’t it? That’s what you think.’
‘It’s as good a reason as you’ll ever have, Mr President,’ Bic said. ‘The world as you know it will end, unless you act, and act now.’
‘Why should I believe you?’ John said. ‘
A convenient truth revealed at the last. All you do is lie. All anyone ever does is lie to me: my wife, my friends, my enemies.’ He ran his hand through his hair. ‘God damn it, I even lie to myself!’ He looked at Steiner. ‘And if it’s true, why keep it a secret, when it could have strengthened your hand?’
‘Yes,’ Jessica said, looking at the professor in accusation. ‘Why keep it secret? You said it was because the president would have a hard time accepting one asteroid, let alone six. Now I’m beginning to wonder.’
‘He thinks disclosing such information may jeopardise the subterranean bases,’ Bic said. ‘Isn’t that so, Professor Steiner?’
Steiner glared at the hacker.
‘Is it true?’ Jessica said, knowing it was, from the secret conversations she’d overheard Steiner having with Bic previously. ‘Would you rather see us all die to ensure the GMRC prevails?’
John looked at the professor, as did everyone else.
‘It’s not a case of winning,’ Steiner said, ‘the entire species – all life – is at risk. You know that!’
Jessica shook her head. ‘I don’t even know you, do I?’
The comment made John think to the past again, but this time the words were those he’d said to Ashley when he’d found out she’d cheated on him prior to their marriage. The same exact words now repeated by another: I don’t even know you. His conversation with Paul also echoed through from the past.
‘Three per cent capacity,’ John had said about the water shortage. ‘That can’t be.’
‘It can and it is,’ Paul had replied.
John frowned; history was repeating itself, but with him as the spectator. What does it mean? he wondered. Am I being set up? By who? he asked himself. The hacker? What if it’s not a who, he thought, but a what? A cosmic force? A higher power? God? He struggled to grasp the meaning. The same things were happening, leading him here –leading him to make a decision. Where before it had led to the deaths of those he loved, he now had a chance to save that which would always be in his heart, the nation of his birth, but more than that, the people who called it home.
‘Prove it to me,’ John said to Bic. ‘You have,’ – he baulked at the clock’s readout – ‘fifteen minutes.’
‘That’s not enough time,’ Steiner said.
‘Show me,’ John said. ‘Show me now.’
Bic nodded and said, ‘Observe, Mr President.’
The lights dimmed and a holographic projector beamed an image into the centre of the nuclear bunker. A brilliant image of Earth appeared, rotating in space, while the trails of six asteroids spiralled in towards it. The scene changed to satellite imagery showing the asteroids’ approach and the hologram altered again to show the first asteroid in real-time, as it sped like a bullet through space.
‘The GMRC tried for decades to stop the asteroids, Mr President,’ Bic’s voice said in the darkness.
The hologram’s light reflected in John’s eyes as he watched in horror at what could only be described as an apocalyptical nightmare.
‘But they failed,’ Bic said. ‘The GMRC has been corrupted from within.’
The scene changed again and a majestic panorama of four huge space stations appeared, the enormous creations rafted together in orbit around the Earth. An explosion rippled through their structure and, one by one, the amazing craft tore themselves apart in a show of choreographed destruction.
‘The Space Programme was destroyed by an insidious force working within the GMRC itself, Mr President. Decades of toil cast into oblivion by those that seek a world government you have always known existed, but were unable to prevent.’
‘Freemasons,’ Eric said.
‘The Committee,’ Bic said. ‘All-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing. Or so they think, as they forget one thing.’
‘And what’s that?’ John said, mesmerised by the terrifying images.
‘God can only be resisted for so long. Plague, war and famine return to those that inflict them on others, and the belief they’re safe will be laid low, like those they seek to control.’
The hologram altered again, revealing helicopters and massive armoured personnel carriers transporting thousands of people to a structure hidden deep within the forests of a national park.
‘The Committee control nothing but themselves,’ Bic said. ‘Chained by their own fear of losing the false treasures of material wealth, but the rats of wealth and fortune have fled the sinking ship, Mr President. Are you going to be the captain who goes down with it, or the man who believes he can hold back the tide?’
John stared at the pictures, which changed to those of children playing in a D.C. playground. The camera zoomed in on three of those who played, children who John knew only too well, the children of Diane Lane, the White House communications officer who’d died saving John’s life in a failed assassination attempt.
‘Don’t let daddy die, too,’ the daughter had said and John remembered, as she’d hugged him, the shame he’d felt for causing her mother’s death.
The child had assumed, as president, John controlled death itself, and in a way she was right. Right now, he did. He stared at the innocents at play and the countdown clock which appeared at their centre.
‘It’s time to decide, Mr President,’ Bic said. ‘Save the world, or let it burn. Right here,’ – the timer filled John’s vision – ‘right now. It’s all down to you, every life, every hope, every dream,’ – the seconds continued their descent into oblivion – ‘everyone.’
Chapter Two Hundred Forty-Six
Deep within the mountain-sized Anakim pyramid located on the Mongolian plateau, Sarah Morgan peered out of the strange, mirrored wall she now found herself trapped inside. She wished she’d never decided to gaze into its hidden depths, as whatever possessed her had hijacked her body and left her stranded in limbo. If she hadn’t witnessed the incredible things she’d seen in Sanctuary, she would have been forgiven for thinking she was dreaming. However, where Anakim technology was concerned, it seemed the impossible was no longer confined to the realm of fantasy. The only saving grace of her current predicament was the welcome company of her best friend, who was also confined within the same alien structure, and it was to her she now turned in her quest to reclaim what was rightfully hers.
‘I need to help them,’ Sarah said, still looking at the hundred-foot-high stone pyramid they’d found contained within its much larger cousin. ‘I need to get back into my body and tell them they’re looking in the wrong place. That the pyramid isn’t the gate.’
‘Heaven’s Gate?’ Trish said. ‘They think it will stop the asteroids, don’t they?’
Sarah looked at her friend. ‘You know about the threat?’
Trish nodded. ‘Jason overheard the Swiss guards talking on the flight here.’ She looked at Sarah, her expression etched with fear. ‘Is it the end of the world?’
Sarah looked to where Ruben emerged from the pyramid and looked around the chamber, as if searching for someone. Her face grew grim. ‘They seem to think so.’
Trish touched Sarah’s arm. ‘What did you mean, they’re looking in the wrong place?’
‘These walls are Heaven’s Gate, not the pyramid.’
‘Are you sure?’
Sarah hesitated. ‘Yes – no – I don’t know. I think so.’
‘Either way,’ Trish said, ‘you need to be out there, not in here.’
‘But then that thing inside me will be back in here with you.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ Trish said. ‘Besides, it’s too interested in what’s going out there than in me. At least, it was before it got out.’
Sarah shuddered. She wanted to ask Trish more about this thing that dogged her every step, but the idea of it made her feel nauseous, so instead she said, ‘Can you help me?’
‘I’m not sure. Let’s try. Place your hands on the wall.’
Sarah reached out, but stopped short of touching it.
‘What’s wrong?’ Trish said, looking at her in concern.
&nb
sp; ‘I’m not sure I want to go back.’ Sarah felt tears coming and wiped them away.
‘Hey, hey.’ Trish wiped away Sarah’s tears as more rolled down her face. ‘What’s all this?’
‘My life is a misery. I have no energy to go on. Something is in me, controlling me. I’ve got brain damage and they say I’ll die if I stop taking my medication, which I’m addicted to. Everyone hates me and fears me, even Jason. The only one who doesn’t is you, and you’re in here.’
‘But you want to warn them, don’t you? About this being the gate?’
‘I’ve changed my mind.’ She buried her head in her friend’s shoulder and clung on, knowing she wanted to stay exactly where she was.
‘Sarah,’ – Trish stroked her hair – ‘this isn’t like you, you’re normally so positive.’
Sarah didn’t trust herself to speak; she just continued to hold her friend like her life depended on it.
‘And why does everyone fear you? You’re the kindest, sweetest person I know. You used to help out at your local hospice, reading stories to the patients. You volunteered to help the Red Cross during that outbreak in Sierra Leone. You looked after that stray dog you found and nursed it back to health, even though it cost you more than you could afford.’
‘They think I killed people. I think I killed people.’
‘You thought you killed me, too, didn’t you?’
Sarah nodded.
‘You silly thing.’
‘I always end up alone,’ Sarah said, as all her thoughts came spilling out. ‘And now you and Jason will probably leave me, too, and I’ll have no one. I’ll be alone when I die and no one will care.’
‘You’re never alone, Sarah. You should know that by now. No one is ever alone if they have God in their heart. God loves you, even if you don’t. Look at me.’ She looked into Sarah’s eyes. ‘Jason told me exactly what happened in Sanctuary when you tried to take your own life, but that’s never the answer; no matter what life throws at you, look for the positive.’
‘What positives can I take? I’m addicted to a drug that’s keeping me alive, I have no way out. There’s no way out. I’m trapped.’
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 123
