The Final Option

by Kyle Robertson

  “Will it still work when I spike up?” Cody asked Eldridge.

  “You were not a factor when I created these suits, so once you spike, you'll tear it apart. But you're point man, Bullet Sponge. It shouldn't concern you anyway.”

  Cody grimaced, grit his teeth, and stood up. Eldridge stood as well and got into a defensive stance.

  “Cut the shit! Both of you!” Ron scolded them. “We don't have time for this! Secure this confrontation, now!”

  After a few seconds of posturing, Cody sat first. Eldridge claimed the silent victory, and sat also.

  “Since you women are finished, I can begin this mission briefing,” Ron spoke as he pulled out a small pen-like remote, and pointed towards a large screen positioned on the wall. Images of several murder scenes displayed themselves on screen.

  “These are Geno-cleanse events,” Ron started. “Three hundred twenty-nine random occurrences around the nation. No rhyme or reason, just overly violent homicides. The only constant is one of the adults and an infant, if there is one, become missing; they disappear.”

  They gazed upon the carnage. Entire families, not just killed, but slaughtered. Cody was disturbed by these images. He caught himself, cleared his throat, and sat closer to the table. He was, after all, a commando, and they don't show weakness. Deep inside, however, he knew those images would haunt his dreams for some time.

  Tory pulled out his laptop computer and linked to the master database. He began to access the crime reports.

  “We know the missing adults are important in their fields, but their fields are so random, we can't anticipate an attack. The last incident was a respected surgeon. The one before was a horticulturist,” Ron continued.

  “The one before that was an oceanographer,” Tory spoke up, as he kept reading the reports.

  “All the events are random,” Ron said to the group.

  “These are not random, Mister Pinnet,” Tory interrupted his thought. “Everything has a pattern. As obscure as it can be, it's a pattern to someone.”

  “I graduated first at Harvard with a constant 4.0-grade point average,” Ron began. “And these events are random to me.”

  “I did that at M.I.T. when I was fourteen, but that is irrelevant. Knowledge doesn't have an advantage over everything, Mister Pinnet. Sometimes facts aren't the basis for reason,” Tory said.

  “Well, if it isn't fact, what's the basis for this reason?” Ron asked Tory impatiently.

  Tory stopped studying his laptop, and said, “Belief, Mister Pinnet.”

  Ron had a confused look on his face. He repeated what Tory said. “Belief?”

  “Yes Sir, belief,” Tory repeated. He began to clarify. “Random patterns have chaotic variables in them. You just need to plug in the right variable, and it becomes crystal clear to any cognizant person.”

  “What variable did you plug in?” Ron asked Tory.

  “Religion. Faith in a deity,” Tori explained.

  “Look, I was lucky to finish high school,” Cody chimed in. “I'm part of this mission too! Explain it so I can understand.”

  Tory turned to Cody, and said, “I know where they are going to strike next, Cody.”

  Cody was in disbelief. He asked in an accusing tone, “How?”

  Tory explained in a simpler approach. “The pattern consists of a certain constant. The missing adults have certain professions. They are the best at their field. They can teach people how to do their specialty. Children are the most impressionable vessels for learning. That's why the infants are missing. This group has turned one of the most popular religions into their own radical cult. They are taking up a deadly, but active role in cleansing the Earth of sin.”

  Ron began to catch up. “They are taking the scholars of biology and the environment. That's the pattern. And that's why I activated you. Your amazing rationale in the midst of obscurity. Where is their next target?”

  Tory had a smug look on his face. He liked the compliment given by Ron. He continued, “They have their initial targets already. It's time to go for the support. As strange as it sounds, humans are secondary in this scenario. They focused on them the least. It's as if they believe humans are not the superior species. Anyway, according to my calculations, she is next.”

  He flipped his monitor to show the rest the target.

  “Doctor Stillen is the leading biologist for radical disease. She has cured sixty-six people other doctors diagnosed as terminally incurable.” Tory pointed at the picture on his monitor.

  “How can you be so sure?” Cody asked with a doubtful tinge in his voice.

  “I didn't pick you like lotto numbers, Cody,” Ron said, getting fed up. “Each one of you were carefully chosen because of your gifts. Binary Cypher hasn't been wrong yet. I don't believe he has made a miscalculation this time.”

  “Where is she, Tory?” Geogyn broke his silence.

  “Mobilize the C-130, Mister Pinnet,” Tory said with a slight urgency. “We're going to Parkersburg Virginia.”

  Geogyn stood as Ron dialed transport. He walked towards the large screen on the wall. He kept looking at those horrific images. Ron closed his cell phone, and noticed Geogyn staring at the screen. He walked up to him to put his hand on his shoulder, when Geogyn spoke.

  “This squad is green, Ron. They're going to die,” he said bleakly.

  Ron saw his apprehension of cataclysm and said, “You don't know that, Geo. They're the best trained commandos of any department.”

  “According to my dog tag collection, your optimism is naught. At least Paranormal Commandos don't have any family.” he said.

  Ron looked over to the three commandos preparing to load out. “They aren't scared of death. They're very gung-ho.”

  Geogyn turned to look at the squad, and said, “Tell that peppy bullshit to Cody. I don't think he shares the same view.”

  Cody had a pensive look of doom on his face. He prepared for this mission as if he knew it was his last.

  “Reign in the ‘pity party’ Geo. We still have a job to do.” Ron became more authoritatively.

  Geogyn kept looking at his squad. He knew they’d signed up for this. Most people referred to it as ‘long suicide’. If they had a death wish, it wasn't his concern.

  “All right, the plane is ready, ladies!” Geogyn spoke in a loud tone as he clapped his hands. “Time to execute this mission!”

  Ron had a satisfied look on his face as Geogyn lead his squad to transport.

  Chapter Five: Ezekiel 9:1

  “Twelve clicks from the drop zone,” the pilot of the C-130 announced over the transmitter. “Executing Operation Deep Plunge.”

  Geogyn looked at his team. They were ready for action. Geared up, locked and loaded.

  “We H.A.L.O. In two minutes. Set your altimeters to eight hundred feet. We'll pop then.” Geogyn motioned to the aircraft's hatch.

  Ghost Alpha nodded to Geogyn with compliance, understanding and agreement.

  Eldridge placed his hand on Cody's shoulder and yelled to him over the noise of the massive engines. “Get frosty, Snagz! It's party-time! God, I love this shit!”

  Cody had his own ritual for preparation. He sat, stared at nothing, and remained quiet.

  Tory set his altimeter to the correct height with a tinge of slight nervousness. He was always weary of a high altitude, low opening parachute jump. Knowing the odds of possible death did not aid in his apprehension. Being a chaos theorist exacerbated his concern.

  Cody sprang to his feet suddenly. “Thirty seconds to drop, Commandos! Hit the ready line now!”

  Eldridge and Tory rushed to the hatch. Cody followed close behind. They fastened their oxygen masks to their face. Cody flipped the switch to open the hatch.

  Geogyn followed behind them. He was impressed with the assertiveness Cody displayed. He began to finally believe in this team. They had the skill to survive. He hoped they had the will.

  “T-minus three, two, one, Go Go Go!” Cody yelled at the top of his lungs. Eldridge and Tory
exploded out of the hatch into the cold black of the night with Cody following. Geogyn capped off the exercise with his jump.

  The engines of the aircraft began to disappear as it stayed on course. The violently whipping wind quickly replaced them.

  Geogyn felt gravity becoming a selfish mistress. She began to pull at him with her relentless fervor. He began to reach terminal velocity, and fell deeper into the cold black. There was no reference to the Earth in the night. Not being close to a major metropolis robbed them of city lights. The experience was just cold, murky, and windy, with a feeling of leaving your stomach on the plane. The only thing they had to rely on was the proximity beep of the altimeter to let them know when to deploy their chutes. With a H.A.L.O. dive, that beep took a while to comfort them. They just waited in the windy dark, pensively for the beep.

  Geogyn began to contemplate the particulars of this mission. It was a surveillance op. Whatever transpired, there would be no engagement. It didn't matter that she had her family. When the killing started, they weren't to be rescued. Geogyn's squad had to let the carnage happen. If they interfered, it would detrimentally halt the true mission of discovering who the culprits were and where the location of their origin was. Rescue wasn't even a prerequisite.

  As Geogyn wrestled with his conscious for allowing an entire family to be murdered, while he sat back and did nothing, his involuntary mission execution took over while the altimeter beeped loudly in his ear.

  He pulled his chute, and deprived his mistress of her hungry satisfaction.

  They landed in a field. They began to wrap up their chutes, when Tory pulled out a nine millimeter hand gun. Geogyn quickly grabbed Tory by the wrist and said, “This is just surveillance. No engagement in any way. Put that pea shooter away.”

  “Begging your pardon, Sir. This ‘pea shooter’ is instrumental for this mission,” Tory explained. “It doesn't fire rounds. It fires a tracking device.”

  “You're gonna paint whatever transport they get away in?” Cody asked.

  “I know you barely finished high school, Cody, but ‘tracking’ is a fifth grade word,” Tory started. “I'll explain the word ‘obvious’ later.”

  Geogyn let go of his wrist and said, “When it happens, don't piss yourself in horror. Aim straight, and hit your target.”

  “Yes Sir,” Tory said with conviction.

  “You probably won't have to hit anything, smart ass,” Cody told Tory.

  “We're basing everything on your theory, and I'm at least smart enough to know theory does not equal fact.”

  “I know your educational capacity is stunted, but that whole ‘you talking’ thing isn't helping your status,” Tory countered. “I'm in Ghost Alpha for a reason. My theories become fact.”

  “So, you're a fortune teller for the squad,” Eldridge spoke. “Tell us our outcome of completing this mission.”

  “I'm not a ‘fortune teller’,” Tory said. “My theories are disabled for any team I participate in. The only flaw of my paranormal gift.”

  “Wow, that sucks,” Eldridge said. “A fortune teller who can't see into his own future.”

  “Well, I can tell our future,” Cody began. “We're the roughest, hardest S.O.B.s to ever walk this rock. Screw all this ‘theory’ shit. We came to kick ass, and that's what we're gonna do!”

  “We're at the parameter,” Geogyn interrupted their conversation. “Go stealth.”

  The squad remained quiet and motioned with hand gestures only. Cody was point man, and led the team to a safe location near the house. It was the only one seen. Dr. Stillen's nearest neighbor was three miles away. The only thing heard was the chirp of the cicadas in the shroud of night that opposed the pale moonlight. Fireflies tried to illuminate the squad's surveillance. Since their phosphor was inadequate, the squad activated their night vision contact lenses.

  They waited, silently for twenty-two minutes, then Tory put four fingers in the sight line of the squad. He counted down in seconds by closing his fingers, systematically into a fist. As he dropped his last finger, a crew of men repelled from an assaulting light thirty feet above the front yard. Geogyn's squad quickly turned off night vision, so they wouldn't be blinded, but the light still gave them ghost images. The men had a devastating arsenal with them.

  One of the men placed a breach charge on the front door. Geogyn heard the word “clear”, as the men moved away from the door. A loud explosion and a bright flash emanated from the front door. One of the men threw a flash-bang grenade into the house. After it detonated, and the flash dissipated, they stormed inside.

  Geogyn's squad switched to thermal image. They saw much confusion in the house. Many orange and red silhouettes moving quickly. Two images received a volley of red flashes from the rifles of the images that intruded the domicile.

  One of the smaller images ran to the front door. Geogyn switched his thermal vision off, as a teenage girl exploded from the house, into the front yard.

  One of the men pursued her. He raised his rifle and leveled it at her. He fired, and hit her in the back of the head. The round lifted her off her feet. Her head burst and collapsed while she was airborne. She landed in a disjointed, bloody, headless heap eight feet away.

  Tory aimed the tracking device near the area of the light in the sky. He fired it. The chameleon emitter attached to whatever aerial transport vehicle it was, and assumed its color. Which in this case was no color because of its invisibility.

  The men carried out a woman and her newborn. They secured them in a hoist, and brought them up towards the light.

  The men climbed their repel ropes, and also entered the light. The light disappeared, and all that changed in appearance was an obliterated front door, and a discarded dead teenager.

  “I am so gonna murder those bastards,” Cody said, breaking the silence.

  “You're going to get your chance, Snagz,” Tory spoke. “I'm tracking them now.”

  “If you know where they're going, I'm calling for pick up,” Eldridge whispered, still in stealth mode.

  “As long as they are on this planet, I will know where they're going,” Tory assured Eldridge. “I created a network of global, redundant satellites for my tracking device.”

  “I know all about your tracker,” Eldridge revealed. “Who do you think they contracted to design your chameleon emitter?”

  “Just call for pick up,” Cody said, still fuming. “I gotta start murdering soon.”

  Geogyn looked at his crew. They were good, and they were ready to execute their task. “Futureshock, get on the horn, and yes. We are authorized to infiltrate with extreme prejudice.”

  Chapter Six: Genesis 10:10

  “Activate your N.O.S.E. gear,” Eldridge told the squad. “Time to get your weapons hot.”

  They followed the signal to the Marrabios mountain range in Nicaragua. The area was rich with volcanoes. It was in a fertile rain forest. The tropical climate made Cody sweat. He hoped the outfit was at the least comfortable when he had to fight.

  “These weapons holsters suck,” Cody said. “It takes too long to whip out my gun when it's completely covered.”

  Eldridge became agitated with Cody's constant complaining. “If they weren't fully covered, they would stick out like floating firepower. That would make my gear inutile. I understand your role in the squad is defensive, but my role is to minimize your specialty at all costs. If we aren't here, you won't have to defend what won't be attacked.”

  Tory tapped Cody on the shoulder. “And by the way, ‘inutile’ means ‘useless’”.

  “Screw you, Tory! I ain’t stupid!” Cody exploded at Tory.

  “All of you, shut up,” Geogyn admonished them. “Go stealth. This isn't training. Treat this like your prior missions. Stop the jabs and get serious.”

  Eldridge acknowledged the admonishment, and used a hand gesture to tell them to activate the suits.

  The suits became transparent. Unless you stared at them and knew what to look for, they literally vanished. The squad cl
icked their contacts to biorhythm vision. It was the only way they could see each other easily since the suits nixed thermal imaging with body heat control.

  Their weapons weren't as heavy as the conventional Government Issue. Their firearms were constructed of carbon fiber and ceramic composite material. Very light, and deadly accurate, the team felt as if they were ready for anything.

  Eldridge motioned for them to infiltrate into the cave opening where the signal came from. They got into a strike formation. Cody led them deeper into the cavern's opening. Eldridge was behind him. Then came Tory, and Geogyn covered the rear. They used their training to be swift, but remain silent.

  It took a few minutes for their eyes to adjust to the blackness of the cave. If they would have used night vision, they could see the inside of the cavern well, but not each other. They decided the team's whereabouts were more important than the environment. Their sight of the environment was adequate enough to remain silent, but slower.

  Cody thought his sight was suspect when he perceived the walls moving. Then the smell hit him. A whiff of guano burned his nostrils. It was putrid and thick. That was when he realized his sight was fine. The walls weren't moving. The millions of vampire bats on them were.

  I really' hate bats, Cody thought as they kept moving deeper into the cave

  As they got farther, Eldridge spotted a pinpoint of light. They were getting closer to completing their mission. They were going to destroy anyone that was deemed to be a threat, and save the civilians. That was if they were here, or even alive.

  Eldridge began to get excited. This was his proverbial playground. Black ops, assassination missions. He was itching to execute the executions.

  Tory motioned the signal was straight ahead. They pressed deeper.

  As they got closer, the light became a hanger-sized entrance. It housed a Soviet Mi-8 Hip transport helicopter. It was a non-reflective, stealth black.