A female officer opened a tent flap and saluted. Presley spoke to the woman quietly but suddenly went rigid after she said something in response.
“Son of a bitch,” he said. He went outside and continued talking with the woman in trenchant voices for minutes.
“That doesn’t seem good,” Fischer said.
The tent flaps opened again, and Presley walked over to a table with maps draped across the surface. He pulled out a pen and circled a spot.
“We lost a scout a few minutes ago,” Presley said. “But we now know where the juveniles are.”
Fischer surveyed the location. It was to the east, not even five miles from the outpost perimeter.
Presley looked up from the map. “I recommend getting back to your shelters and hunkering down for the night. Captain, for your benefit, I also charged a team to start looking into what we discussed.”
“Thank you, Colonel,” Beckham said.
Presley sighed. “I hope you’re wrong.”
“Me, too,” Beckham said.
Fischer followed him and Horn out of the tent. They cradled their rifles as they walked into the street to join Tran and Chase.
“Any update on that monstrosity your wife is working on?” Fischer asked.
“She didn’t say much,” Beckham said.
“Better get back to the kids,” Horn said. “I don’t trust that redhead lady we left them with.”
“We better try and snag some sleep,” Tran said.
“No way I can sleep with everything going on.” Chase spat onto the ground. “I’d go for a beer instead.”
“I wouldn’t say no to one,” Horn said with a chuckle.
“We can drink when we win this war, boys,” Fischer said.
“Agreed,” Beckham said. “Until then, I’m staying frosty.”
The group set off down the empty streets, quiet with the curfew imposed by Presley. When Beckham and Horn got back to their building, they parted ways and headed for the shelter.
Fischer continued down the road with his men, walking for close to an hour. They were almost back when the sound of diesel engines rumbled through the night. A convoy of M-ATVs cruised through the empty streets, stopping at the shelter Fischer had been assigned.
Men in riot gear jumped out of the vehicles and rushed inside. Fischer moved aside with both Tran and Chase getting in front of him when more soldiers hurried over, shouting for their IDs.
“What in the hell are you idiots doing out after curfew?” a guard asked.
“Take it easy,” Chase said. “We were just talking to the colonel.”
“No need to go Gestapo on us,” Tran said.
“Shut the fuck up and show me your ID. Now,” said one of the guards.
Fischer understood the value of intimidation, but these guys were pissing him off. He and his men hadn’t done anything to deserve this kind of treatment.
When he got his ID back, shouting came from the front entrance. The men in riot gear pulled people out, their panicked voices filling the otherwise quiet night.
“Where are you taking me?” one of the men said.
“We didn’t do anything!” shouted the woman.
Fischer had expected to hear the shrieks of monsters tonight, but he didn’t expect to hear the cries of terrified people at the hands of the base’s own guards. He didn’t exactly regret going to the colonel about collaborators, but now that he’d seen the results, he worried paranoia and rumors would add a dangerous, unforeseen threat to Outpost Manchester’s existence.
“Get inside,” said the guard standing by them.
“Calm down, bro,” Chase said.
The guard grabbed him and shoved him hard. Tran stepped between the two. “Don’t you fucking put another hand on him.”
Fischer found his hand inching toward his holstered .357.
Another voice rang out.
“What the fuck is going on here?”
An officer walked over, a vest full of magazines, and a helmet over his black face mask.
“These men were out during curfew,” said the soldier who had pushed Chase.
Chase stood next to Tran now, both tense and ready to fight.
“We had a meeting with Colonel Presley, you dumb shit,” Fischer said.
The officer motioned for the soldier to return to the truck. After he left, the officer said, “Get back inside the shelter. It’s not safe out here.”
Fischer glared at the officer but said nothing. Instead, he motioned for his men to move inside. Once they were through the door, the guards locked it, leaving them only a window’s view to the street.
The officer got back into an M-ATV and the armored vehicles pulled away, speeding to the next location.
“I was about to break that dude’s face,” Chase said.
“Me too,” Tran said.
Fischer watched the vehicles round the corner.
“What do we do now?” Tran asked.
“We wait, and we pray I’m wrong about the collaborators,” Fischer said. “And if I’m not, we get ready to fight.”
***
“Our test today is the most important yet,” Kate said. “If we’re successful, we can actually figure out what in God’s name the Variants are planning.”
The mastermind let out a long exhale that rushed over Kate like a storm-born wind, carrying with it the rotten stench of a garbage dump. The two giant, muscular limbs trembled, and its eyelids fluttered.
Nothing Kate had studied during graduate school had prepared her for a test subject like this. In fact, she couldn’t imagine anyone in the massive laboratory at Outpost Manchester had ever thought they would be experimenting on a giant monster that wanted nothing more than to have them all killed.
She turned from the half-sleeping beast and joined Sammy, Sean, and Carr at a nearby laboratory workstation. On it lay the bioreactor with a chunk of pulsating red tissue inside of its clear plastic drum-like container. One of the mastermind’s tendrils was attached through a port via micro-electric array. On the other end of the tissue, another array connected to Sammy’s computer.
Sean looked between the computer and the beast, his right foot tapping the ground. His fingers traced across the regulator for the monster’s sedative IV drip. “Are you sure we have to keep that thing half awake?”
Kate appreciated Sean’s caution, but his wariness was holding back their research. It almost seemed like he was purposely trying to slow things down, but they were all tired, and she wasn’t working as quickly as normal.
Sammy responded as she typed at her keyboard. “If we put it to sleep, then I’m just talking to a comatose blob. The thing didn’t respond last time until we woke it up with enough prodding.”
“And we’re not going to make any progress if we don’t get an actual response from the beast,” Kate said.
“We won’t be doing ourselves any favors if we’re scared to confront the mastermind.” Carr leaned over the bioreactor chamber, scrutinizing the tissue within.
Nodding, Kate pointed at Sammy’s computer. The technician had done a great job adapting the collaborator’s software so they could translate an input signal. That should help them intercept any communications in the Variant network once they hooked up their own computer systems to the webbing.
“We can’t just be reactive anymore. We have to be proactive. The way to do that is to send our own signals through the network,” Carr said. “Signals that can interfere with Variant-collaborator communications or even lure them into a trap.”
“First things first,” Sammy cut in. “What kind of messages do we want to send it now?”
“Maybe we should try to trick the monster into thinking it’s tapped into the actual Variant network,” Kate said. “That might get it to open up more and give us a chance to test how well our messages pass for the real thing.”
“Why don’t we just tap into the real webbing network?” Sean asked. “We can circumvent the mastermind. Wouldn’t that be safer and quicker?”
“Exactly,” Kate said. “So long as we’re only connecting the mastermind to this secured bioreactor, it’s like we’re operating a computer at home with no Internet access. But as soon as we connect to the internet—or in our case, the Variant network—then any beast or collaborator could connect right back to us. Not a good idea.”
The mastermind shifted in its restraints. A long growl escaped its bulbous lips. Kate eyed it suspiciously, waiting to see if it would make another move, but it settled back down, its head rolling on its shoulders.
“I really don’t like this.” Sean tapped on a gauge measuring the sedatives pumping in through one of the massive IV lines into the mastermind. “It’s unpredictable. We’re playing with fire, just guessing how much we think it needs.”
“I trust you’ll keep the beast under control, but if all else fails, you have my permission to knock it out,” Kate said.
Sean kneaded his fingers together nervously, taking a step back from the lab bench.
“Just focus on taking care of the lab equipment and connections to the mastermind,” Kate said.
“Sure,” Sean replied.
Truthfully, Kate didn’t feel safe either. Not with a monster that could destroy her entire team with a single swipe of its scythe-like claws. Even the dozen soldiers along the walls of the massive lab didn’t make her feel much better. She couldn’t help but think of Javier and Horn’s girls in addition to all the other people sheltering at this outpost.
If the abomination escaped and started attacking from within, she worried how many would fall before they could stop it.
But worries like that wouldn’t solve the challenge they faced now.
“Sammy, re-open the connection with the mastermind,” Kate ordered.
A few keystrokes and numbers scrolled across the computer monitor. The mastermind’s tendrils squirmed like long red snakes slithering from its body.
All around the laboratory, Kate watched technicians and scientists stop what they were doing to watch the giant.
“Connection confirmed,” Sammy said. “Ready to proceed on your mark, doctors.”
The monster’s tendrils undulated as Sammy performed some basic checks.
She input simple commands checking the status of the mastermind.
“Alive?” she typed out.
The response came back, “Yes.”
“Where?”
“Location unknown.”
“Identify yourself.”
“Bio-node Twenty-Two.”
From their work with the mastermind, they had determined that the masterminds called themselves Bio-nodes, though they were still unsure who had given them that name.
“Network connection with other Bio-nodes?” Sammy probed.
“Unavailable.”
In its half-sedated state, the monster continued to respond robotically. None of the dramatic anger filtered into its responses. For that, Kate was optimistic. It meant Sean had to have dialed down the sedatives at just the right level.
But for the next part, they needed a stronger response from the beast.
“Sean, reduce the sedatives,” Kate said. “We need the mastermind in a higher state of consciousness.”
Sean’s fingers shook as he adjusted the regulators on the IV lines.
The mastermind’s eyes blinked, and its arms started to lift, yanking on the thick chains attached to the iron scaffolding.
Simple inquiries like the ones Sammy had tried so far were easy.
But if they were going to disrupt the Variant-collaborator communications, if they were going to send bad intel to compromise the enemy’s strategies, then they would need to create significantly more complex messages that would fool even the mastermind.
Now was the moment they had been waiting for. The final test that would determine if they had figured out how to do just that.
To accomplish it, Kate had to rely on Sammy’s computer genius to translate regular language through the collaborator’s software into signals that the mastermind could understand and react to.
“Let’s put your work to the test,” Kate said. “Ready, Sammy?”
“Ready,” she replied.
“I want to see if the mastermind will listen to our commands. Tell it to stand.”
Sammy’s fingers worked across the keyboard.
For a second, nothing happened. Then the monster began to push itself up, eyes still roving back and forth like it was drunk. It managed to stand, wavering as it did.
“Damn, I didn’t think it would actually listen,” Sammy said.
“Tell it to walk forward,” Kate said.
Sammy typed in the command, and the monster shivered, huge saucer eyes pulsating, searching around the chamber. Saliva dripped from its toothy maw.
“I think I let the sedatives off too much,” Sean said, beginning to twist the regulator.
“Hold on.” Kate put up a hand to stay him.
The mastermind took a stumbling step forward. Its eyelids peeled back a little more, and its lips shook into a snarl as it continued to walk forward until the slack in the chains started to disappear, straining against the scaffolds.
With a snarl, the beast reared back one of its claws. Messages scrolled across Sammy’s computer screen.
Where am I? What’s going on? Enemies everywhere! Where is master? What does he command?
But this time, Kate didn’t signal for Sean to knock the creature out.
“Sammy, tell it to stand down. Tell it we are the master.”
The beast pulled against its restraints. Chains clinked together, and dust fell from the ceiling; iron groaned, echoing around the cavernous room. Sammy’s fingers worked across the keyboard.
With a final lurch, the beast stopped and stood, relaxing its limbs.
Master? came the message back on the screen.
“Yes,” Sammy typed back. “Sit down.”
The beast dropped immediately, a long sigh coming from its flared nostrils. A tremor rocked through the laboratory.
“See?” Sammy asked, looking at Sean. “We got this under control.”
Kate nodded. “Good work. What else should we tell it?”
The team began a more complicated conversation with the mastermind, asking about the number of Variants back where they had extracted it in New Orleans and how many other masterminds were out there. It knew pitiful little intel; it was more of a tool than a real ‘mind’ at all.
Sammy let out an exasperated sigh. “I guess we can think of this Bio-node thing as more of a Wi-Fi router that merely transmits and receives complicated signals. It’s not like a hard drive that contains and stores a bunch of data.”
While they couldn’t drag out more useful intel from the monster, they had at least managed to fool the mastermind into thinking they were on its side. That was good news for weaponizing their technology, Kate thought.
“We should be able to load this software onto other computers,” Carr said.
“Then we can install the same language processing applications on other computers. This is our Rosetta Stone,” Kate said excitedly. “Wherever Ringgold’s armies go, they can hook those computers up to the Variant network to monitor and disrupt communications.”
The other scientists and engineers around them nodded in agreement, looking pleased with their victory. But Kate noticed one who was not.
“Sammy, what’s wrong?” Kate asked. “Is something not working?”
“No, it’s all working… Quite well in fact. That’s the problem.”
“I don’t follow,” Carr said.
“Think about it.” Sammy nodded toward the mastermind.
&n
bsp; “Someone or something not only created creatures like this one, but they perfected the webbing network and a neural-biological interface to go along with it,” she said. “All in a matter of years. That person, this master that the beast mentioned, must be more intelligent and powerful than these beasts.”
“That person is the true mastermind,” Kate said. Realization seized all sense of accomplishment.
Sammy nodded. “That’s who we have to find and destroy for this nightmare to end.”
— 22 —
Daylight glowed over the pine trees casting their shadows across the makeshift camp. Dohi and Mendez were out searching the area, but Fitz, Ace, and Rico were seated around the tree trunks. Dirt covered their fatigues, and deep bruises underscored their eyes, evidence of the lack of sleep they all suffered from.
But exhaustion was the most innocuous thing they had to endure.
Fitz stood, his blades creaking. Rico followed. They walked past a couple of men with bloody bandages. A few Wolfhounds secured the perimeter, their rifles probing the shadows among the woods.
Singh was leaning against a tree with a canteen in his hands, head bowed, either in prayer or asleep.
“Lieutenant,” Fitz said.
He looked up and cleared his throat. “Master Sergeant,” Singh replied. “Do we have a final head count?”
“Two dead, another six injured. And… three missing.” Fitz gritted his teeth together, imagining what had happened to the three who were missing.
Neither of the men needed to think too hard about their fate assuming they’d fallen into those crazy people’s hands. These demented, sick people devoured Variants in some ironic twist of fate, and if they did that they would savor the flesh of a normal man.
Singh tugged at his beard, gazing up at the blue sky between the tree branches as if he was looking for an aircraft to come rescue them.
“How long are we going to sit here?” Singh asked. “It can’t be safe.”
“I’ve got Dohi off making sure we’re not being tracked,” Fitz said. “He’s also looking for any injured that may have been lost during our retreat.”
Extinction Cycle Dark Age (Book 2): Extinction Inferno Page 27
