Nightmare Factory, page 31
“What were they worried about?” she asked, genuine concern creasing her face.
“Mechs.”
“Combat bots?’” she asked.
“Yes.” I then told her about our encounter at the Iron River facility.
“So, the bot horde was battling the… the hostile plant life. You guys were just caught in the middle?”
I shrugged; the slight movement caused a brief spike of pain down my spine. “Possibly. It didn’t seem like it at the time. The point is, I have no idea what all we are up against. I think it’s humans versus whatever the hell comes at us. Just be ready, Deb.”
“We’re just waiting in the weeds at this point, Prowler.”
So many occasions we had found ourselves doing exactly that. Waiting, watching, just praying for our targets to show themselves.
“Never had to worry about the weeds eating us before, though, Bayou.”
“We’re war fighters. Our environment has always been a battlefield. It’s still the people behind the scenes that are the true evil, though.”
CHAPTER
SEVENTY-TWO
I slept most of the drive to the presumed coordinates of the Ranier facility. Sergeant Dae informed me the others were already at the location but had no additional information. He eased the Wulf down a rural road, wary of an ambush. Gi was up to speed with everything we had encountered at Iron River and the Wraith, although I was hoping we had left that demon far behind.
Since all we had was a set of GPS coordinates, we took several turns trying to find the spot. Roads don’t line up well with map coordinates, and even with Ada helping, it still seemed mostly guesswork. The Korean soldier tapped the display on the dash.
“We’re here, Prowler.”
I looked out via the eight displays arranged around the cockpit.
“No signs of the woman or the Wraith?”
I had described both, and the Korean shook his head.
“No, Master Sergeant.”
I liked Dae, but we needed to quickly get to a better working relationship.
“No one calls me that. I’m Kovach or Prowler.”
“Ne! Master… I mean, Kovach.”
“Ne means yes, no?” He nodded, and I was still confused.
* * *
We had pulled off the state highway some miles back and proceeded through mostly rural sections of Tennessee before turning onto a dead-end road with a faded sign optimistically welcoming us to the Sparta Technology and Industrial Park. The buildings were probably originally built on spec with taxpayer money in hopes of attracting occupants. From the looks of it, they had only been marginally successful. Of course, if this was a Hammer location, all of this may be subterfuge.
The place looked nothing like Iron River. “This can’t be right. This is simply an industrial park.”
Large, generic, grayish-beige buildings scattered down both sides of the roads. Most looked like warehouses or manufacturing, with small offices on one side and docks for shipping and receiving on each end. I could see a few had signs out front with names and logos, none of which were familiar. Most appeared unused. No trucks waiting at the docks, mostly empty parking lots. Parking lots with cracked pavement and regular, old, normal Tennessee vegetation reclaiming the site. There was, however, a dusting of the lavender powder coating everywhere. Almost like the yellow pollen of spring, but there was nothing natural about this stuff.
“Are we in the right place?” I asked.
Ada responded, “Indeed, an excellent job of hiding in plain sight. Think about what you aren’t seeing, Prowler.”
I looked even closer at the buildings, especially the ones with the well-manicured grounds. I saw nothing unusual, and that pissed me off. I’d spent my entire career paying attention to the smallest of details, yet the comprehension of how this could be a top-secret military facility eluded me. I shrugged my shoulders.
“We did not pass through a town, nor did we see any signs of the town that apparently used to be here. Sparta is simply a spot on a map now. There are also no major roads or railways in the immediate area,” Ada said.
She was right, any complex like this would have been sponsored by a local township and obviously would need to be able to provide a workforce and ability to move goods in and out easily. “Well, shit. That’s ingenious.” Anyone that happened down this road would see exactly what they wanted them to see, a failing industrial park in an impoverished area of the state.
Fifteen minutes later, Ada had identified a full sensor grid overlaying the entire complex. Not just camera, but IR, audio, motion, and more.
“They’ll know we’re coming.”
I nodded to G-Force, who was using the time to make friends with Sumo.
Who are they? was my question. So far, from where we were hiding, I’d seen no activity, no people. “They still have power?” That in itself would make the place stand out, as we’d seen virtually no places with a working grid. Only a few charging stations using solar and an occasional house or store whose local reactor was apparently still functional.
“Yes, but they hide it well. My guess is, if we came here at night, the entire facility would be dark, at least from the outside.”
Someone had the location of Iron River and probably many of the other research facilities. Rainier, though, was not on anyone’s radar. The guard soldiers had already said no bombs landed here. What drove them away was fear. The blue glow the farmer’s wife had seen must not have been this location, still could have been close, though. Perhaps the terrorists got the coordinates wrong or, even more likely, the old missile simply didn’t perform as intended.
This place was trouble. Hell, it was death. This was not a happy place. Everyone seemed to know that, and yet, despite that, here I was. Death no longer frightened me; I’d nearly died several times, yet here I was. There have been moments in my career when I doubted myself. Doubted my abilities. Doubted my team. But I can’t say I ever faced anything like this. Today there was genuine doubt, maybe fear. Something was going to go horribly wrong, and I would not be able to fix it. Once again, I would not live up to expectations. I would not be ready for the challenge. How would I fuck this up? Hey, that’s who I was… am. Just can’t get around that fact. Still, the mission is what matters… the purpose… the plan.
All these things have been drummed into me at the hands of a colonel, my father growing up, and at the hands of every C.O. I’d had since signing my enlistment papers. I knew I had no choice. I knew what had to be done. And the deep, cold blackness in the pit of my stomach could do nothing to stop me.
I took that step, and then another one and another one. That’s how you get through tough times. You just keep walking. You keep moving, hopefully forward, occasionally getting shoved back or knocked down. Tough times are tough for a reason. If it was easy, everybody would do it. This was one of those moments. Those are the life-defining moments when I knew I had to be better than myself.
If I am being honest, that was something I’d rarely achieved. I wasn’t really sure I could do it now. But I was damn sure going to try. I had to make this work. Not to save the world. Not to save the planet. Not even to possibly save my own sorry ass. I was doing it for a woman I’d only known a week and a little boy I had never met. For some reason, they were all that mattered and me staying alive was what she wanted.
CHAPTER
SEVENTY-THREE
Gi called me over. He was behind a series of storage tanks. The micro GPR he held was giving a subterranean scan of the surrounding area.
“It’s all open space,” he said, turning the screen to me. “It won’t scan out far enough, but this entire site is sitting atop a massive underground complex.”
That seemed to jibe with what the soldiers had told me, so we had to be in the right place.
“Find us a way in.”
The man began zooming in on various points. “Ada, a little help.” I knew the AI could deduce things from clues far too random for us mere humans to catch. Still, she lacked intuition and didn’t have an immediate plan, either.
Sumo and I wandered off and do what we do best—explore and knock shit over. Ultimately, our way worked, although not quite how I’d imagined.
“You’re determined to do this, aren’t you?”
Pop’s voice on my comms shocked me to a standstill. Now, there were a lot of things I might have said at that point, but truthfully, I was tired of him second guessing me.
“You really don’t care if I live or die, do you?” I answered, my weariness clear in my voice.
“We need you to be the hero, the good guys. You are the military out there now. Do you understand what that means?”
“Good guy, bad guy. I’m the one with the guns… that’s what I know, Pop” And yes, that was a movie line, too, but I’ll be damned if I know which one. Something about talking to my dad made me descend to his level. It was a major character flaw, something my therapist should have been helping me get past. If I had one, I mean.
He sighed. “You don’t have enough guns for this mission, Son.”
I have to admit; he sounded genuinely concerned, in a detached, artificial sort of way. “Okay, Dad. Well, I don’t know how, but I do have to find a way into this little shop of horrors.”
“No, I’m serious. You’re going to need more guns, a lot more guns. Big damn guns.”
I heard a sound like ice cubes clinking in a thick glass tumbler. The image of him sitting there with a bourbon in his hand flashed in my head.
“Find the landing pad for the airfreight. Should be a keypad embedded on the western side. Ada can hack the codes.”
Then he was gone; the silence returned to fill my head. I spotted the pad in the aerial view Ada was now providing. “G-force on me,” I whispered. Sumo followed my signal and swept wide as I crouch-ran to the thick slab of concrete just outside one of the smaller buildings. The keypad was simply a part of the concrete. You wouldn’t see it unless you knew where to look. I placed a remote sensor just below the number pad. Seconds later, Ada confirmed she had the code.
“I can get us in, but there is a biometric lock just ahead. I can’t get you past that as easily.”
Okay, by not as easily, my AI meant not at all. As soon as I entered her numbers, a large section of the landing pad rolled back to reveal a ramp heading down at about a fifteen-degree angle. The three of us went in, and the concrete slid back into place with a resounding click of heavy-duty locks. Ahead of us was a solid steel wall with warning signs of ‘Absolutely No Admittance.’ It was written in red — all caps and everything.
The sloping road was clearly built for large vehicles to use. I searched one side and G-Force the other. High on the wall, we found another sensor. It required a matching thumb print or DNA sample. No way we were on the approved list. To one side, a thick window offered a glimpse into an empty guard room. The glass was inches thick, the multi-laminate stuff they use in armored cars.
I looked at the Korean and winked. “You know what to do.”
He smiled as he fished in his pack and came up with an even smaller pack. He unrolled it and removed one strip of adhesive with four silver buttons, each a little smaller than an old American dime. He placed a button on all four corners of the window, then stepped back.
The buttons were sonic generators specially designed to set up a resonant harmonic frequency that would match the natural frequency of the substrate, then alter it until the molecular bonds failed. It wouldn’t work on metal, but on glass like this… well, it was perfect.
The window shattered into thousands of harmless bits. It was loud in the confined space, but I doubted the element of surprise was on our side, anyway.
It took some doing to get both of us, Sumo, and all our weapons through the two-foot opening. I think my new partner took every weapon the Wulf’s arms locker contained. The door leading out of the guard room wasn’t even locked. All that elaborate security and they failed to secure the weakest link. Typical government operation.
“Power is still on,” Gi confirmed, doing a quick scan into the space beyond.
“Ada, any chance you can find a layout or do something to help me find the med labs?”
“In the official DARPA database, this place doesn’t exist, Prowler. If you find an active workstation, though, I may be able to help.”
We stepped through the door, Gi darting to the far wall about twenty feet away. The road here appeared much as it had on the other side of the barrier, but the incline was less, and it quickly opened up into an underground parking area. On the far wall, I saw loading docks; these were nearly all filled with the same generic looking freight trucks. The autonomous kind with the low squat cabs up front.
I heard sounds, the telltale whine of mechanical servos. Was the entire place automated or simply just abandoned?
“You are being targeted,” Ada said. I saw twin lasers lighting on Gi and knew they had to be on me as well. The laser reticles didn’t budge off target once they locked. A human’s hand would have shaken, the lasers would have moved around to find the best place to shoot. Machines didn’t think like that, though. These were from an automated weapons system. They found a firing solution and waited until whatever command system algorithm had enough data to say whether to fire or not. The color of the laser on my chest changed from the icy blue to a fire engine red. That was probably not a good thing.
“Move!” I yelled just before an arc of brilliant red sliced through the air. I saw Gi racing like a cat, low and agile. My body no longer flexed like that, and today, simply walking upright was a struggle. Still, I made it to the far wall without serious injury.
“That was an automated defense system.” I said it as a statement, not a question. “Where is everyone?”
“This factory appears to be nearly completely automated, Kovach.”
The voice came from above me. I spun around, MK4 at the ready. Damiana Voss stood in a darkened alcove a dozen feet above the floor. I had a rule, okay, more like a mandate: ‘When in doubt, Take them out.’ Killing an enemy before they got a chance to do the same to you had been a winning position my entire career. Still, I hesitated. Switching to IR view, I saw no weapons. In fact, confusingly, she appeared completely nonthreatening.
“What do you want, Voss?”
Sumo began a low growl from somewhere in the darkness. I knew he and Gi would have my back.
“I want to help you, but first, I should apologize.”
“That could take a while. You’ve gone out of your way to betray me, multiple times, when all I did was offer to help.”
She disappeared momentarily and a section of wall in front of us soon began to retract silently to the side. She was walking down several steps, turned, and stood in the doorway.
“I wasn’t the only one keeping secrets, Joe.”
She reached out and placed a hand on my arm. It might have been a friendly gesture, but yeah, I still wanted the bitch dead. It would have been easier to do if she had been a little less beautiful.
“I’m sorry I used you, but I had my reasons.”
“Not an apology, Voss.” I turned and motioned for Sumo to sweep the corridor the woman had just come out of.
“Are the lasers off?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Sorry, no.”
“How did…” Then I saw how she had gotten in and avoided the defense system. A lanyard with a badge and a holographic image of her face. She had clearance to be here. I nodded. “You wanted to come here the whole time.”
“I was supposed to be here. This is my job, Kovach. Sorry if that doesn’t square with your idea of how things work. I did my best to keep both of you out of here.”
“But you don’t work for Hammer, do you?”
She ignored the question, but I thought from her expression I had struck a nerve.
“Joe, surely you realize there is more going on here than just some enemy missile strike on key targets.”
I just stared at her, my face barely hiding my growing rage.
“They knew where our labs were. They used exactly the right warheads to create chaos. Have you not wondered why so many people are dead or missing?” she asked.
I had wondered about that. At first, I assumed they were just hiding. Sheltering in place or maybe bugged out to a remote location somewhere. Ada had stated at one point it appeared eighty percent of the population was absent. In the affected areas out closer to the coast, it was even higher.
“What about the rest of the country?” she continued. “Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis. Why are we hearing nothing from them? We have military bases there, but have you seen any hyperjets or bombers or, hell… relief planes dropping supplies?”
I hadn’t. Bayou and I had discussed something similar. Where was the Navy? Where was the help from any of our allies?
“Two of the three remaining monolith carriers were destroyed in the last two days. You’re a military man. Tell me who has the capability to do that?”
I knew the answer. No one. Our enemies were fragmented, never reaching a threat level adequate to pull off simultaneous attacks on multiple domestic ground targets, much less on our marine or space-based ships. Banshee’s primary missions had been to play whack-a-mole with these other would-be players and keep them underground and off our threat matrix.
My newly repaired helmet’s speakers began picking up a sound. Something different emerging from the slightly mechanical background noises. A tap… tap, tap tap sound that repeated and grew. The look on the woman’s face let me know she heard it, too.
“The bots,” I said.
She nodded. “We need to move,” she echoed, turning and moving fast back down the corridor.
CHAPTER
SEVENTY-FOUR
BANSHEE
Bayou studied the woman. She couldn’t help but wonder who she was to Kovach, but it was obvious her only concern was finding her son. Carol’s expression as she looked around the top-secret TriCraft was typical of everyone’s first encounter. There was something otherworldly about the ship. It was the stuff of myth and legend, especially in the UFO community.
