“Hey, instead of climbing, why don’t we try stretching up there?”
“Did you say that out loud?”
Oh, yeah, sorry.
“You know, honestly I think I prefer it. Plus, it’s getting hard to tell the difference. We seem to be getting closer by the minute now. Oh, well. Let’s go up, Stretch Armstrong.”
I felt my legs and arms thinning out, and soon I was twice my normal height. “That big one right at your eye level should do the trick. Give it a good whack.”
I drew back my arm, now twice its normal length, and brought my fist forward; I heard the whoosh! as it sailed by my head, then an impressive crack! as it impacted the stone. Not out yet, but it moved a few centimeters…
“You loosened it enough. Just push, it’ll go through. Roll away the stone, sonny boy.”
The smell is getting worse, if that’s possible… good thing I can hold my breath for a long time… okay, let’s see if we can move this thing…
I put both hands on the big rock and pushed; soon my arms and legs were shaking as it inched along, creaking and scraping; then it suddenly hit something solid on the other side. I stretched my head up to look into the hole I was creating; the stone had moved about half a meter, but now appeared blocked. Ava…
“We’re up against reinforced concrete on the other side. Don’t worry, it’ll crack. Give that stone your best punch, and that should do it. Imagine it’s the people holding your dad hostage and let ‘em have it.”
That was all it took. I drew both hands back and smashed the rock over and over, like a jackhammer; dust flew, chunks of the stone tumbled away; I tore at the other big stones surrounding my target, and they flew aside; splashing sounds came from a meter in front of me; I felt concrete instead of stone, and I ripped at it, enlarging the gap; I realized suddenly that I was screaming and crying and couldn’t seem to stop…
“Hey, okay, sonny boy. Ease up, now. You’re going to tear up your body. Deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth. That’s it. That’s it. We’re in this together, and together we’ll get your dad back. We will, I promise you. I don’t know how yet, but we will.”
Okay… deep breaths… I… I did tear up my hands… chunks missing from my fingers… and my left elbow… oh, I didn’t expect it to hurt, but it kind of does… Sorry, Ava, I lost it… that reminded me of when I was a little kid, frustrated over something and lashing out at my parents, hitting, kicking, biting… Sorry, I’m okay now.
“Don’t worry, sonny boy. With all the stuff we’ve been through, anyone else would have lost it twenty times over by now. Here, let’s get back to normal height and fix your wounds.”
In seconds I was un-stretched, and the missing parts of my hands and arms were filling in as I watched. I gazed up at the hole I had made, and then all around me; chunks of rock bigger than my head were everywhere, some twenty meters or more back down the dark, water-filled hallway. The hole was now a rough circle about a meter and a half across, and the odor was worse than ever; it smelled a lot like a sewer.
Wait, a minute… Ava… that underground creek that you mentioned. Was that a fancy way to say sewer?
“Oh, did I say creek? It must have been a slip of the simulated tongue. Better strap on your artificial gills. We’re about to get dirty.”
33
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
MEETING WITH SVC
121652 14:03
-You think they bought it?
-I believe so. Just the same, we’ll be monitoring their communications and will insert the ‘leak’ if they fail to do so.
-Okay, it’ll have to work. How is the gate-stormer recruitment coming?
-We have about eight hundred lined up so far. It’s a good start, but I recommend doubling our recruiter numbers if we want to get to five thousand.
-Triple it. It’s just money, right? We need to be ready to go in one week.
-And if the boy doesn’t make it?
-Then we’re out a bunch of money. And we’re all screwed. Where is Oakes now?
-He’s in the air, twelve hours from San Diego.
-Why hasn’t someone invented teleporters yet instead of more smart phones with features no one needs? ‘Oh, you gotta have the new one, because it projects a hologram of your grandma, so you never really have to see her!’ I guess I shouldn’t complain, we’ve all made billions off of those things, right? Anyway, the second he lands I want him on his way to see Concannon. They’re the key to storming the gates. He has the leadership skills and training to make it work, and once the security at Area 51 find these military guys leading the charge, they will pay more attention. That will make it easier for the kid and his one-armed sidekick to go in undetected.
-She’s highly skilled, you know. She is from the Kim family. From Sacramento.
-Wait, ASC? Advanced Security Consultants? Mercenaries for hire? Assassins R Us?
-Those are some of their more colorful nicknames, but yes, that family.
-And she’s working for the Bright Hand? How did I not know this? Is she a security risk?
-If she is, she would be the deepest undercover of all time. She ran away from her family as a teenager and Mike Marsh trained her.
-The Bright Hand legend? She must be okay, then. He put their credo into full effect, right? ‘Death is preferable to subjugation’.
-Indeed, he did. Almost makes you believe there is some good left in the world to think about people like him.
-Why, (SVC), I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you so maudlin before. Do you want to talk about your feelings over some afternoon snacks?
****
T his just keeps getting worse. I knew I would have to go in the water, but not this water, so now I have to dive into a stream filled with… no, don’t think about it. Ava, should we put the spider grenades and other stuff back in my legs? They will get messed up, won’t they?
“Yes. Good thing you have those girly shorts on, that makes it easier. It’s the little things, eh, sonny boy?”
I don’t know what you mean, but let’s get this over with, okay?
“If you say so, but let’s not forget to take a moment and enjoy the ride. We’ll probably never do this again, so soak it all in.”
Wait, are those jokes? If you’re trying to tell jokes right now, I’m going to turn you off.
“All right, settle down. I’m just trying to relieve a little tension here, Mr. Sensitive. Plus, you can’t turn me off. I unzipped your thighs, by the way. You can put away the tech baubles.”
I hadn’t even noticed that she had been opening them up, but I jammed the items in their spots and my thighs immediately zipped shut.
“I know you can hold your breath long enough to get out of this poop creek we’re about to enter, but let’s put the artificial gills on, anyway.”
At least we agree on that.
I strapped the mask on, scrambled up the wall to the big hole I had just made, and thought that it was a good thing that it was practically black inside. I didn’t really want to see what I was about to dive into, although I could for sure smell it, and with my extra-sensitive nose, it was horrifying. Ava, this is really the only way in?
“We’ve been over this, sonny boy. This is the only way in which won’t require killing people or possibly getting killed ourselves. We could have fought our way through, but they have some high-caliber weapons, and some bullets might have gotten through into what’s left of your body. If that happened, I might not be able to keep you alive. Then where would I be? Don’t forget, this is at least half about me, too. So, suck it up and jump in. Well, don’t literally suck it up. It’s just an expression.”
Oh, boy.
“Now, we will go about a hundred meters, and come up through a drain grate in a maintenance building next to the prison yard on the women’s side of the prison. Look to the left, you’ll see a tiny bit of light in the distance. That’s our target. It’s late enough that it’s dark out now, but there will be lights on and the prisoners wi
ll be out on the yard. Then we go to the next phase of our plan.”
This seems less like a plan and more like torture.
“Oh, stop being so dramatic. You haven’t been swimming in a long time, right? It’ll be fun.”
I’m not even going to respond to that.
I leaned out into the hole, took a deep breath, and… I’m not going to describe the next three minutes. I just can’t. I wish I had some device that could erase memories, but if I survive, nightmares will haunt me for the rest of my life, which could be a long time if I’m lucky. Whatever you imagine it would be like to swim through a sewer, just remember that this is a sewer for a prison, maybe the worst prison in the world. It was at least half water, and that doesn’t sound so bad, but that means the other half was… no, I said I would not describe it. At least I didn’t run into any snakes or crocodiles, although the rats…
Eventually, we reached the grate in the floor of the maintenance room. It was small, but the space would be just big enough for me to squeeze through. Okay, just push this thing out of the way… I hope there’s a shower or even a hose up there to wash myself off… hmm, it doesn’t want to move… of course, it’s screwed to the floor… I was feeling a little panicky after my traumatic trip through the sewer, so I punched the grate and it flew up, smacking the ceiling of the room before clanging back down to the floor. I hope no one heard that…
I had to stretch myself out to get through the hole, but soon was standing in the darkened maintenance room, who knows what dripping off of me. I spun, taking in the room… roughly ten meters by five… yard tools, rakes and shovels, a workbench, a table in the center with folding chairs around it… ahh, a hose!
I stood over the grate and doused myself with the cold water, washing as best I could. Oh, man, I stink… I’ve got to get some new clothes, these stains are permanent… even if they weren’t, I’d never want to wear them again…
“Okay, next phase, we need to get out onto the prison yard. There are two doors: the one to the right goes into the building, the one in front of us goes out onto the yard, so we take that one. We will be sailing close to the wind, so keep your eyes and ears peeled and be ready to improvise.”
You know I didn’t get any of that except for ‘improvise’. You did that on purpose, didn’t you?
“Maybe. Uh-oh.”
After some rushing footsteps, a key clicked into the door from the inside of the building.
34
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
MEETING WITH SVC
121652 20:17
-Any word on the kid?
-Nothing new at this point.
-Man, this makes me nervous. How did we get to the point where we’re relying on a kid who’s barely a teenager to save all of us?
-Do you want me to answer that honestly?
-No, I know how we got to this point; that was one of those ‘rhetorical’ questions I told you about. Hubris, overconfidence, call it what you will, we screwed the pooch, and now we’re stuck with a pooch zombie who may end up killing us all.
-Colorful metaphor. Although I know it has never had a real-world test, we could consider the halo protocol, you know. If things get too difficult for him to make his way out safely.
-Oh, I don’t know. That was meant as a doomsday option; I don’t think I would really want to consider it unless the immediate safety of the LFP is seriously threatened. Even then, we’ll have outed ourselves and there would be no more hiding.
-The science is sound. It would work if we decided to use it.
-Maybe, but there’s no way we’re going to risk it. Plus, if we used it and weren’t absolutely precise, we’d end up getting the kid killed. We’re not using it, so forget about it.
-What about in Area 51? As a last resort, of course.
-Look, if the kid gets out of Brazil alive, then you can bring it up. Okay?
-Very well.
-Now let’s get back to the matter at hand; it’s getting close to Christmas, Hanukah, all that stuff. There’s got to be some cookies or pie around here somewhere, doesn’t there?
****
O kay, relax, don’t panic… wait, wait… the key turned in the door lock, and it swung open… a tall man in full prison guard gear entered, a rifle in his hands…
“Whoever is in here, come out before I shoot you,” he commanded; there was one other guard behind him, much shorter and heavy-set. The first man reached for the light switch, clicking it on. They can’t see me yet… come on, come inside…
“Ribeiro, get in there and check it out,” growled the tall man.
Come in, come in… “You go first,” said Ribeiro, his voice low and raspy.
The tall man glared at Ribeiro. “What a chicken. All right, we both go.”
Yes… stand next to each other… They stepped into the room, and Ribeiro saw my foot under the table surrounded by folding chairs. His eyes went wide, and he grunted, “Hey, what’s…” and that’s all he had time to say; I pressed the mole on my left forearm and got both of them in the legs with a swarm of flechette needles. “Nice! Two with one shot… close the door before anyone else comes and give a little laser pulse on the doorknob. That’ll keep everyone away until we’re out of this room.”
I did as Ava directed, and the knob glowed red, the interior parts melted.
Now for some new clothes… the tall one is more my build, but way too long… I’ll have to just rip parts of the legs and arms off…
I stripped the man’s grey shirt and pants off, and ripped the pant legs off below the knees, yanked the sleeves all the way off, and pulled on what was left of the clothes. Whoa, even though I ripped these pants off at the knees, they’re still almost down to my ankles… and the shirt’s almost down to my knees… they kind of stink, too… cologne and B.O., not a good combination… oh, well, I’m not going for fashion…
After a moment of searching, I found a bundle of rope, tore off a piece to tie up the pants so they wouldn’t fall off, took a deep breath, and went to the heavy, grey door leading out to the prison yard. What is that sound… there are people right outside this door… oh, boy…
“Get ready, sonny boy. We may be in for a donnybrook.”
A what?
“A tussle. A slug-fest. We may have to fight our way out. Be prepared to jump; we can put a little distance between ourselves and whoever is out there.”
Won’t we be obvious to the guards in the tower? They don’t seem too worried about shooting people.
“Hang on, let me access the blueprints… there is only one tower on this side of the prison, so we should be okay. If we need to, one well-placed laser shot will incapacitate their weapons, and if we get close enough, we can even use a flechette. The first matter of business, though, is to activate the EMP. That will remove any electronic controls they have over the doors and any communications. Ready?”
I glanced at my left fist. Is it working okay? I just thought it may have gotten damaged when I was tearing into that wall.
“Stand by… no, everything is in working order. Remember, this one is much more powerful; it’ll take out all electronics within a kilometer, so firing it might make us a bit discombobulated. If we are, though, it’ll only last a couple of seconds before I can right the ship.”
You know, I think you just tried to confuse me but I actually understood what you said.
“I guess there’s a first for everything. Fire at will, sonny boy.”
Is one of these guys named Will?
“Oh, help me, great computer. It means fire when you are ready.”
Well, why didn’t you just say that?
“I just did. Shoot!”
Which direction?
“With this level of power, it doesn’t matter. Just aim at the wall.”
What about the lights?
“They’ll go out too, but we can see in the dark, remember? Quit stalling!”
I pointed my left fist at the wall leading out to the prison yard and activated the EMP. Then, every
thing went black.
When I came to, I was lying on the floor of the maintenance room, and people were pounding frantically on both doors. I thought you said we’d just be… what did you say? Discombobulated for a few seconds?
“Even I can underestimate occasionally. It knocked us totally off-line, but we’re back up now, fully functioning. Careful when you stand, the EMP threw your gyroscope off and you may be a little dizzy at first.”
How long were we out?
“Let’s see… a minute and fourteen seconds. Much longer than anticipated.”
Oh, boy… did it work, at least?
“Oh, it worked, all right. The whole place is dead as a doornail.”
I’m not going to ask what a doornail is. You can explain that to me some other time.
The pounding of shoulders and bodies slamming the other side of the door into the interior of the prison filled the room, mixing with fists smacking the door to the prison yard. “Okay, two deep breaths, and then out we go. Be ready to jump and to fire a flechette at the tower guard. Don’t worry, sonny boy. We’ll make it. I refuse to die.”
“Right. Here we go…” I yanked the door open, ready to fight, ready to jump, but instead… in front of the door, on the now moonlit prison yard, the inmates had gathered, most of them standing casually, chatting, looking around, but the few nearest to me had their index fingers to their mouths, which I knew to mean, ‘be quiet’. I flicked on my heads-up display and glanced at the gun tower; the guard was frantically pounding on the door, trying to get out. Hmm… probably an automatic electric lock on the door, to keep the guard safe in case of an intentional power outage like this… got to keep an eye on him… he’ll stop panicking soon and then might start shooting…
Reboot Page 18
