Loyalty: Old Mans Comeback Book 5, page 19
“Damn it!” Terrence slapped the wall. The pain in his hand helped him focus. “Alright… alright, let’s think this through. Do they have any evidence that there was an alien ship there?”
“Some reports suggest they saw… something. A blue light in the area outside the bunker. But they can’t be sure. They made another pass, and there’s a section of the ground that appears unscathed. Not that such a thing is particularly telling.”
“That’s not good enough!” Terrence shouted. “Do you have a single clue what we’re doing here? I need answers, not… not random thoughts or observations! Get me some information, damn it! If I have to go out there myself…”
“I don’t recommend it, sir. We have literally no idea if there’s someone out there. Someone dangerous. The aliens could be anywhere. It’s clear they have some kind of technology that makes it hard to detect them. If not impossible. In that case, they might be waiting for a higher authority to arrive.”
Terrence laughed. “Are you serious? You think they might be after me?”
“Do you put it past them?” Whitby asked. “You had to talk to them… you cut the power. And you were prominent when the alien ship arrived before. If they wanted some kind of payback, why wouldn’t they go after you?”
Terrence sat on the bed. No, Whitby had to be wrong. If they wanted him, they had the capacity to learn his location. If anything, he might be a target of opportunity. Even that seemed improbable. Any attack on his person would be retaliation, not a plan.
But it did mean he wanted to stay far away from that site.
“Alright, you make a good point.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Terrence pursed his lips. “I still need someone on the ground there. Get me information. I’m going to have to answer to this. We need to know if they got it. Maybe one of those useless scientists survived. Reach out to them. The radios might be active. We can suggest we’re going to save them. That should get them talking.”
“I’ll head there personally, sir.”
“Good. Talk to you soon.” Terrence killed the connection. He recognized the danger Whitby put himself in. He didn’t care. The man got paid to throw himself into hazardous situations. This was no different. Even if the possibility of death happened to be difficult to assess.
If the aliens got their hands on the sarcophagus, they were likely already gone. If not, then they lingered. And the longer they stayed, the better chance Terrence had of catching one. That’s what he needed. A live being from outer space again. He might bolster his defense against any sort of criticism in that case.
But without one, he needed to start planning his retirement. Or prison sentence.
Chapter 28
VasCorp Facility, Nevada
Raymond “Flip” Kinnely
“Don’t move!” The terrified shout brought Flip back to consciousness. He found himself lying on his stomach. Someone loomed nearby, perhaps only a couple feet away. “I hope you heard me!”
“I did,” Flip muttered. He doubted the man heard him, considering the helmet. “I was unconscious. You mind if I turn to look at you?”
“Do it slowly!”
Flip shoved himself to his knees, then shifted around. A single person holding an old assault rifle pointed it at him. They wore a long coat, their hair standing up as if they’d been electrocuted. Filth covered their face; patches of soot, it looked like.
“Who the hell are you?” Flip asked.
“Hamish,” he spat. “I’m Doctor Hamish Draper. Who are you?”
“My name’s Flip.”
“So you’re a soldier.”
Flip snorted. “Yes, after a fashion. Look, man. I know you’ve probably got a lot of questions about why I’m here, and you have every right to be pissed off that my friends and I stunned you. But we were trying to do this without injury or killing anyone.”
“And yet…” Hamish shrugged. “People are dead. Including all of us, by the sound of what happened out there.” He gestured to the door. “Doubt we’re getting out of here now.”
Flip stood. “I’m sure we’ll think of something. Let’s start with the possibility of an emergency exit?”
“Did I tell you to stand?”
“Seriously?” Flip checked to ensure his shield was still engaged. It was functional. “We don’t have time for games. Put the gun down.” His rifle sat on the floor nearby. “If you want to get out of here, we need to work together.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“That’s fair, but as far as things go, I don’t much need your help. So if you don’t put the gun down, I’ll take it.” Flip shrugged. “Who knows how that’ll go for you? I can take a shot. Can you?”
Hamish’s expression softened. His lip trembled. “I don’t want to get hurt, pal. I just… you… listen…”
“Stop.” Flip held up a hand. “I’ll tell you more in a minute. First, we need a plan. Is there an emergency exit?”
“If so, I wasn’t informed about it.”
“So much for safety,” Flip muttered. “Okay, what about getting the power online? Morley seemed to do it remotely.”
“I’m not sure how he did that, but yes, we can get the power back. There’s a massive generator nearby. If it wasn’t damaged that explosion. Was that you?”
“No,” Flip said. “Because I actually want to leave. Alright, take me to the generator.” He sighed. “And lower the damn gun, pal. I’ll tell you what’s going on.”
Hamish hesitated, but finally lowered the weapon.
“Thank you.” Flip retrieved his rifle, then slung it over his shoulder. “Are you the only one to wake up so far?”
“Yes. I tried… but they wouldn’t respond.”
“The stun’s pretty powerful. I don’t even know why you’re awake right now. Must be tough.” Flip gestured. “Which way?”
“Over here.” Hamish led him through a door opposite. It was dark, but some dim glow emitted from the edges of the walls. “We haven’t had any sort of excitement. Nothing like what you’ve done here. Did you blow up the door?”
“Yeah, that part was us.”
“Why?”
“The sarcophagus,” Flip said, “it belongs to someone else. We were sent to get it back.”
“So it is alien!” Hamish shook his head. “And some of us were starting to think we were wasting our time. Though frankly, we couldn’t get at the meat of it. No matter what we tried, we couldn’t get through. I’ve wondered how many times people have attempted to breach that thing over the years.”
“Maybe not so many,” Flip replied. “If they thought it was religious or sacred or something.”
“But surely, the more curious… someone from one of the big museums or the imperialist nations.” Hamish clicked his tongue. “But you know what it is. You know what we missed, don’t you?”
“I do.”
Hamish reached for his arm. When he made contact with the shield, he recoiled. “Gah… what… what is that?”
“It’s a defensive barrier,” Flip said. “Which is why I didn’t worry too much about your gun. Was there something you wanted to say?”
“Yeah, I want you to come clean about that thing!”
“It’s an alien artifact,” Flip replied. “I can’t tell you specifically what it does, but I know for a fact you guys wouldn’t have been able to break it open. That tech is so far beyond this place…” He shook his head. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. It’s gone. You won’t see it again.”
“So you took it.” Hamish shrugged. “Just like that. Screw us, screw our families, screw the time we’ve lost and waited. You won’t even tell me what it does!”
“And what exactly would you do with knowledge you can’t prove or talk about? No one’s going to believe you, man.”
“Wait. The way you speak… you’re human.”
“I am. How much farther to the damn generator?”
“Down the hall.” Hamish gestured. “Why do you work for them? Collaborate.”
Flip chuckled. “Wow. Collaborate, huh?”
“Are they holding your family hostage like ours?”
“No, I chose to help.”
“So why? Why would you?”
“They needed it.” Flip shrugged. “And I owed them. That’s pretty much it. Now, I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not interested in some drawn-out interrogation between us. I know what’s happening with you. I tried to help one of your buddies escape to tell someone. I even promised to help. But now, I’m not in much of a position to do anything.”
“VasCorp abducted us. Pretty sure they had help from the government.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Flip said. “When I’m out of here, I’ll make sure everyone knows about it. But without me to back you up. You’ll have to come clean. Or pray it’s too much work to kill your families.”
“That’s cold.”
Flip sighed. He stopped walking. “The reason I’m here is that the sarcophagus you worked on happens to be the one thing that can save an entire planet of people. Every single one of them. I’m helping a population. And yes, I feel terrible about your situation. I’d do something if I could, but I have to prioritize.”
Hamish frowned. “A whole planet.”
Flip nodded.
“Another culture… species… civilization.” Hamish turned away. “I can’t even imagine. I mean, I did. When I was younger. Thought about that kind of thing. Dreamed it might be real, but deep down, I denied it. And then this happened… you know, I might’ve done this job if they had asked. But they didn’t.”
“Wait. What? They didn’t even offer you the option to do it without coercion?”
“No, they came and took us. Our whole families, I’m telling you. It was incredible.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Not all that long. Maybe… I don’t know. A month? Two? Since some crazy incident in the museum where the sarcophagus had been. They moved it here, then brought us in to learn everything about it. And of course, we weren’t doing all that great.”
“My God.” Flip shook his head. “Lead on, Hamish.” They started moving again. “I knew Morley was a piece of trash, but I had no idea he’d stoop that low. They have money. They could’ve offered you a lot of it. Told you what you were working on. I bet plenty of people would’ve agreed to do that.”
“Yes, I would’ve. I work at a university. Or I used to. I’m sure I lost that job now.”
“What do you do?”
“Geology. They hoped I might be able to identify what they built the sarcophagus out of.”
“No luck I take it?”
“Oh, some of what we had at the museum, yes. It was ancient rock from where it was originally found. In Egypt. But that was the local stuff. Once you chipped away all that, you got to the artifact itself. And that, no one could identify. It wouldn’t respond to anything anyway so… I don’t know what they thought we’d find.”
Flip mused at the fact he worried about it being shot back when they went to find it. The thing probably could’ve survived a bomb by the sound of things. At least Sorsha had it. She might even be on her way home.
If she was smart, she had left.
And yet, just as Flip thought about it, a message appeared on his helmet. “This is Gia. can you read? If so, please reach out. We see your vital signs are stable, and you’re in motion. We would like to help.”
“Damn it,” Flip muttered.
“What’s wrong?” Hamish asked. “The generator’s through this door right here.”
“That’s not the problem.” Flip tapped his comm. “Hey, are you there?”
“Hey!” Sorsha cried. “I’m glad to hear your voice! Are you okay?”
“Relatively speaking, yes. I survived. You guys okay? Did the interceptors drop an ass load of bombs?”
“Vulgar way to say it,” Sorsha replied, “but yes. They obliterated the entrance, and sent plenty of debris down the shaft.”
“Understood. What’re you going to do?”
“We’re scanning for an emergency exit,” Sorsha said, “and Gia’s calculating a method to blast through the wreckage to create an opening.”
“That sounds good. I’m guessing VasCorp is on their way to check out the site, too. They’ll want to know if the Box is down here. And if you guys lingered.”
Torma came on the line, “Hey, I’ve got an idea.”
“What is it?”
“We blast a hole in there, I bring a shuttle down to get you, we’re out of here in less than thirty minutes.”
“Works for me,” Flip said, “we’re working on getting the power back on. Find out what’s going on outside.”
“Okay,” Torma replied, “we’ll let you know when we’re ready to fire. Talk soon!” The line went quiet.
“My friends are trying to find a way to free us,” Flip said. “And if they do, then the people who are awake can come out with us. We’ll get them to safety.”
“How?”
“Uh… you probably don’t want to worry about that now.”
They stepped into the generator room. Even with the device off, it was unusually hot. Flip watched Hamish step to the center of the room. He tapped a whole bunch of buttons, then pulled a lever. The machines around them whined for a long moment before spinning up. The lights came on a moment later.
“Great,” Flip said. “Now, how did Morley cut the power remotely?”
“Looks like he had a kill switch.” Hamish points. “But I’ve bypassed it to turn the stuff back on.”
“So he can’t do it again?”
“No.”
Flip nodded. “Let’s see if we can use the elevator. Find out what’s all blocking the door.”
“Sounds good.” The two set out. “What about Mister Morley? Do you think he’s…”
“Listening?” Flip asked. “Probably. He likely knows that we restored power, but he’ll think there’s nothing we can do with it. And maybe he’s right, but at least we’ll have the AC going. And the ability to keep the air clean. Which gives you all a fighting chance to get out of here.”
“He tried to sacrifice us.” Hamish’s shoulders slumped. “After everything else he did to us, that’s sort of the icing on the cake, isn’t it?”
“Might get worse before it gets better, pal.” Flip picked up the pace. “But the longer I’m here, the more I want to settle this score properly.”
“That mean you’ll help us? Like… more than get us out of here?”
“If it’s in my power,” Flip said, “yeah. I’m going to help you. But right now, we see how much trouble we’re in. And if my friends can get down here in any semblance of a safe fashion. Keep up. We’re on a timer.”
Chapter 29
Low Orbit Over Earth
Sorsha Ritaktha
“Gia…” Sorsha leaned toward the microphone. “These calculations are taking too long. There’s no reason we can’t blast that open now. The shaft can’t have too much debris. And with Torma’s idea, he can take care of the rest blocking the door down there.”
“If we make a mistake,” Gia said, “then we’ll cause more damage. We could bury it worse. Bringing down bits of the wall as well. Our weapons are dramatically stronger than those bombs. So it takes finesse.”
“Then,” Torma replied, “let’s err on the side of caution and start shooting with less power. Until we break through.”
Gia didn’t reply right away. When she finally did, she brought up a tactical screen. “That may work. However, each time we attack, we make the area more unstable than it was before. This is why I’m cautious with the calculations. I’m accounting for a great deal, but the worse part here is that we’re dealing with rock and sand. Both unpredictable.”
Jake said, “Analysis paralysis. And soon, we’ll have more VasCorp goons here. So it’s pretty much imperative that we take care of it now.”
“Okay,” Gia agreed. “We can begin our descent. I have done some of the calculations and we can take a risk. I’m bringing us to a point where you’ll be able to fire. That distance should assist with pinpointing the accuracy of the shot. Torma, you may wish to get to the shuttle right away.”
“On it.” Torma hurried off.
“What’s that?” Jake pointed at the tactical screen. “The red blip.”
“That’s…” Sorsha frowned. She thought it would be coming from somewhere on Earth, but it was incoming from space. “Something else. Gia? Full scan.”
