Nightfall

by Christian Kallias

  And Eleanor . . .

  My heart stings thinking that I’m considering killing Ahmed before trying to save her life. I hate myself for it, but this scourge, the heart of this reject-of-a-human, needs to stop beating today. I vowed it to myself, and I need to see this through. Hopefully, I can achieve both the rescuing my partner and taking Ahmed out.

  After all, I still have his data chip; we’ve copied the data from it, so we should, in time, get that intel. I sure hope it was worth it. But perhaps I can use it as some sort of bargaining chip. That is if it’s important to him, and my gut is telling me it is. I only wish I knew what was on it; it would make my position easier in case I decide to bargain it for Eleanor’s life.

  I place explosive charges on the ceiling at all the strategic points to bring the roof down. I do the same on the floor, then get downstairs and position the drones accordingly. I pre-program them to activate their shields the moment I command them. I also put charges on this floor at foot level, in case we need another level for cover, and to make sure I have a backup plan if Ahmed or one of his men tries to fiddle with the nuke once we’re doing that grab and disable op.

  “Are you sure we can diffuse the nuke before the drone’s shields drop completely?” I ask.

  “We can’t be sure of anything, but five super-imposed shields will make shooting through them very unlikely for as long as their power sources hold. Best-case scenario we will have about six or seven minutes to disable the nuke under fire.”

  “And worst-case?”

  “I’m not sure you want to know.”

  “Tell me anyway.”

  “About one minute and fifteen seconds.”

  That’s not a long time.

  “You could use bullet-time if needed.”

  Yeah, the idea crossed my mind, and if push comes to shove, I will. But I’d rather keep that in reserve for later.

  “I’d rather not, but I will if I have to.”

  “Remember, Cole, nothing is more important than this. It’s our mission primary objective. Everything else is optional.”

  I want to bark at her in a fit of rage as I don’t like to be talked to like a child. Then again, I do have a fixation about killing Ahmed, now even more than before, and it’s affecting my focus. So, no matter how much I hate hearing it, I know she’s right. The nuke is the mission. I repeat it to myself like a mantra as I check all the final calculations in simulation.

  Everything is set up to perfection. All that needs to be done now is to make it happen.

  “Good luck, Cole,” says Tanya.

  “To us all.”

  I look at the counter: only thirty-seven minutes and twenty-two seconds left. I take a deep breath and detonate the charges.

  A square-shaped portion of the roof collapses down, and just before it hits the floor below, the second synced charges explode as well. I activate the drones, and they assemble in a formation to catch the two layers of concrete with the nuke sitting on top of it with their tractor beam. They gently land the dislodged structure in front of me.

  I can hear people shouting from the commotion and imagine the chaos on the roof though I have no doubt they’ll soon come down here. In fact, I’m expecting them any moment now.

  I run toward the nuke with super-speed, and as soon as I jump on the elevated concrete, I activate the drones’ shields. They expand around me and the nuke, adding layers upon layers of shielding to provide the protection I need while neutralizing that threat once and for all.

  I’m seeing a green counter ticking down from four minutes and forty-five seconds. Either Ahmed has advanced his timetable, or the roof explosion has triggered an automated detonation safety mechanism on the nuke.

  Doesn’t matter now; all that does is these four minutes and change are the new best-case scenario time we have to deal with. Hits of laser blaster fire start to rain from the roof and onto our position. The drones’ shields are holding strong. It will take a lot more than that to make a dent in them. I try to ignore outside stimuli and focus on the task at hand.

  “Tanya, you have to guide me here.”

  “It would be easier if I took control, wouldn’t it?”

  I hesitate for a moment but realize that there is nothing I can do except try to obey her guided commands. I’m not a bomb squad specialist. I point guns at bad guys and blow their heads off. So, yeah, this decision isn’t a tough one to make.

  “Agreed. Take over.”

  It’s the strangest of feelings, seeing and feeling your body move without your own mental impulse. Only being a witness instead. I take it that it’s what it must feel like being possessed; if there is such a thing, of course. I’ve never given much stock to god, angels, demons, and all that mumbo jumbo. But still, this is something odd, and it feels very unnatural.

  Tanya is moving my hands and fingers with a dexterity I only have when I’m shooting at someone. She has already removed the outside panel under the countdown. I feel my head move to get a better look at the inside mechanism. She cuts wires without hesitating. I realize that one wrong move would blow us up in an instant. But, then again, at this range, we’d be consumed instantly. It would be the end of us in a split millisecond.

  I am surprised by a rogue thought implying that it might not be so bad if it happened. The end of worry, stress, and pain.

  “Cole, now is not the time to get existential on me. We’re not dying today, you got that?” shouts Tanya.

  “My bad. That’s what happens when all I can do is think. I don’t like not being in control, even though I realize that in this particular moment, it’s probably best I’m not.”

  “Hang on, Cole. I’m almost there; I’ll soon relinquish control.”

  We still have more than three minutes on the counter so that’s good. But then everything around me is tinted orange and red, and for a moment I think that the nuke is blowing up.

  But it’s only the outside force firing everything they’ve got at us—rockets, blasters, and now, even grenades. The cumulative shields are still holding, and while things do tremble around us, Tanya seems unperturbed. I feel my heart beating fast and an intense itch to grab a weapon and fire back.

  There will be time for that as soon as she’s done and, in fact, I can already feel excitement at ridding the world of these fanatics.

  That’s when she appears once more in my thoughts.

  Cole, you know what’s waiting for you at the end of this mission, don’t you?

  Seeing Vassiliki’s face so many times is the hardest thing about this mission, this day. It has taken me so long to get over her passing. I thought this part of my life was over, and I become furious thinking that Ahmed is trying to screw with me in this fashion. Little does he know, I’m not the one neutralizing his nuke, so he can keep spitting his venom all he wants. It won’t matter. We’re stopping him.

  But what if it’s not him behind these weird apparitions? After all, it was her last appearance that gave me a tip on how to get rid of the sentries.

  No, it can’t be.

  Vassiliki speaks once more.

  Cole, every time you succeed in your mission, there are two of you here in this timeline. You must realize that by now. I know time travel is a hard thing to wrap your mind around, but think about it. If you prevent a catastrophe, the you from the present doesn’t have to jump back to prevent it anymore, so what happens then? You both exist in the same timeline.

  What is she trying to tell me?

  Nobody can survive time travel, Cole. Nobody. They told you that you were special and that there is something in your DNA, but that’s all bullshit.

  What is she getting at?

  Of course, I can survive it. I’ve done it so many times! I shout back mentally.

  Yes, and it seems like this to you, because you remember each mission, but that doesn’t mean your body actually survives. When you’re successful after a mission, Cole, what do you do?

  I get into a time decontamination chamber.

  More like t
ime-remnants cleaning chamber, Cole, removing time anomalies from existence once you have achieved your goal. Except, you’re the biggest anomaly of all. After your missions, there are two of you. Do you really think Rewind can afford two or even more Coles? But that’s beside the point. Whoever time travels dies shortly after. That’s a side effect of the current level of technology they’re using. Traveling through time unravels your DNA, Cole. That’s why you only jump back 717 minutes. Didn’t you ever ask yourself why this number? In reality you can only survive about one thousand minutes once you’re using Rewind’s contraption. In fact, in your earlier missions, they were sending you back one thousand minutes, but sometimes you’d die before that due to unforeseen complications, and then your present self wasn’t able to receive the data from your mission and have its consciousness upgraded with its latest version. Doing back in Rewind instead of on the field made you a much more effective agent as the additional experience from previous deployments added to your overall experience. Over time they adjusted the timeframe to a number they thought was the best average for you to complete your mission, get back to base safely, and be euthanized, but not before your consciousness could be transferred to the present you.

  A chill, cold as ice, courses down my spine. I’m no longer watching what Tanya is doing. I feel like someone has walked over my own grave.

  What are you saying? I say in my mind. That every time I deploy I die?

  Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Only your consciousness survives. And they do a pretty good job at erasing any memories that don’t serve their purpose along the way. That’s why every time I appear to you, you seem equally shocked, because of that memory they implanted inside your mind; the one where I supposedly died in your arms.

  If this is Ahmed trying to feck with my mind, it’s working like a charm. I feel rattled to the bone. What does this all mean? If any of this is true, how come I don’t know about it?

  You and I aren’t married?

  We are, just not the way your mind thinks. I can’t tell you more than this right now, but understand this: they’ve been playing you like a pawn, Cole. Just as they do with everyone else on this planet. We’ve been lied to for centuries, but now, with the high level of tech we’ve reached, they can do it without us even realizing it’s happening. At first it was subtle mind manipulation through misinformation. Now that we have implants in our skulls, it’s so much easier for them to lie, deceive and manipulate. That’s why we fight them, Cole; we need to destroy this system to build a new one from the ashes of the old, rotten system. Can you understand that?

  I’m not nuking an entire city to make a statement, and neither should you! No matter how bad this world is, killing innocents by the millions is not the answer!

  Who said anything about this being our nuke? They planted that nuke, Cole. They got to Al’Hasi, and they gave him everything he ever wanted: an army of fanatics, the latest generation weaponry, and all the information he needs to defeat you. He’s always wanted to wage his own little war, so it wasn’t too difficult to get him on their side. Heck, he probably thought he was helping the cause initially, but he let his thirst for power get the better of him in the end. How do you think he is always a step ahead of you? We are trying to turn the nuke into a massive EMP weapon that will disable the entire city, including its central AI.

  She continues.

  We’ll then be able to retake some measure of control over our lives. If you fail this mission, if we don’t manage to detonate the EMP, then they’ll blow the nuke, and if it’s not this one, they’ll blow another one and make it look like we did it. We’re not mindless terrorists like Ahmed has become, Cole. We want humanity to regain its freedom, the true freedom we lost so long ago.

  If that is true, why do the mega corporations bother with the Rewind program? What’s the point exactly?

  Long ago, men in power all around the world understood that terrorism generates much fear in the hearts of the population, that its very existence allowed them to pass any law they desired, no matter how outrageous to privacy, under the guise of protecting them from this scourge. In fact, they could impose any new idea and measure of control they wanted in the name of fighting terrorism. And while initially terrorism was indeed a problem, it was never as bad as what it became over time with the help of very high-placed officials who used it for their own devices. It’s easier to have the people submit to any new measure, no matter how ridiculous it may sound when they are afraid for their lives.

  I can hear no deception in her voice. If she is real, and she sure sounds like it, she believes every word she speaks.

  So when they saw how effective it was to get people to embrace war in the name of defeating terrorism, they started staging horrible acts of their own, acts that terrorists with their limited weaponry and resources could never have pulled off on their own. They got the help they needed from our own so-called governments back then to use terror as an excuse to impose new laws and to shape the world the way they saw fit, with the people’s support because fear is the ultimate motivator.

  My thoughts are so scrambled by her words I don’t know what to think anymore. A part of me wants nothing more than to believe her, which would mean she’s still alive and that I can perhaps see her again. Then again, there’s that little thing about me dying soon that doesn’t make me so happy.

  No, feck this shit. This has to be a trick. They know Tanya and I are about to stop them, so they try to trick me; it’s their last measure of desperation.

  “Shut up!” I shout out loud this time.

  “What’s happening, Cole?” asks Tanya with palpable worry in her synthesized tone.

  I wonder what my next move should be. Do I tell Tanya? What if any of this is actually true? Then she could be working with them, perhaps not knowingly. Maybe she’s a watchdog, making sure I do what I’m asked, or she takes over like she just did.

  I’m becoming paranoid; my thoughts and emotions overload my mind completely. I can’t even hear the blaster fire and rockets being thrown at us anymore.

  “Nothing, Tanya. Sorry. What’s our status?”

  “Only a minute or so left. This thing is built well, one layer of security on top of another. It’s been designed to be tamper-proof.”

  “Can you detect any radiation emanating from the device?”

  “I can’t, Cole, but it’s probably perfectly shielded in the core, the way it should be. I can’t access the core without putting both of us in mortal danger.”

  The more questions I ask myself, the less it all makes sense.

  Cole, listen to me, adds Vassiliki.

  I feel like putting my hands on my ears, but I forget I’m not in control of my own body right now. I’m not in control of anything anymore. Right this instant I’m shaken to the core, completely lost and paralyzed.

  I don’t know what’s real and what’s not. My dead wife, who apparently isn’t dead, is telling me I’m doing everything wrong by following orders, something I’ve done all my life as a career military officer. And that no matter what I do, I’m dead anyway because I time traveled and my body will expire in about three hundred minutes or so.

  And now she tells me that there’s the possibility that I could be working for the wrong side altogether. I feel like my head is about to explode. Literally.

  Look into your heart, Cole. Forget your brain and your thoughts for a moment; they fecked with that part of your being so much they have you running on autopilot. You can’t trust any of it. You must feel it on some level, Cole, that you were always a great soldier, one with integrity. You never followed an order blindly, yet lately, it’s the story of your life, isn’t it? Listen to the sound of my voice and feel my every word. You are going to die today, no matter what happens next. Now knowing that, the question you must ask yourself is: do you want to die doing the mega corporations’ dirty work, ensuring humankind’s slavery for many centuries to come, or do you want to do something about it?

  There is no w
ay I can make an informed decision any longer. Both my life as I perceive it and what Vassiliki’s telling me ring true. It’s a 50/50 type of deal. I have to trust either my gut or my heart. But even if I do so, I have only a handful of seconds to make a choice. You’d think knowing that I’m going to die with certainty would make this easier. Yet, my conscious self is rejecting this notion with everything it has. It’s shouting at me, telling me that I’m only going to die if I listen to her lies. This must be what it feels like to go crazy, to become a loony and have one’s brain fried.

  The countdown on the nuke or EMP—I still haven’t decided which is which now—is down to forty-two seconds. The shields are blinking heavily around us. If I am to do something, I’ll need to do it fast.

  I must decide now. Do I stay the course and complete my mission like I remember doing from dozens of times before? Or do I take a leap of faith and trust in what I think I’ve learned today?

  Four

  Mission completion time: T minus 27 minutes

  I realize I have no other choice. Time has run out, and the only way I can make a decision and act on it is to activate bullet-time. It will slow time to a crawl and allow me more time to make this decision. I send the mental command to my neural augment.

  “Why are you activating bullet-time, Cole?” says Tanya sharply.

  “I need more time to think.”

  “To think? What the hell, Cole? You said you weren’t willing to use it because your ass is on the line and now you want to use it to think? What am I missing?”

  “Look, we’ll talk about this later; for now concentrate on what you’re doing.”

  “I don’t believe what I’m hearing,” says Tanya.

  Join the fecking club.

  “Radio silence until I make contact again. Confirm?”

  “Whatever,” Tanya answers, clearly pissed at me.