2041 Sanctuary (Let There Be Light) (16 page)

Moments later he opened his eyes; the shaking had ceased and he resumed his task. A few key strokes locked his office doors and brought up the secure transfer server. Having completed a host of security measures, Joiner saw the requested files lay waiting for him as the decryption analyst had promised. Switching the folder to his wallscreen, he stood and extracted the contents. Three video files appeared, files he’d acquired from the Committee, files that were incomplete. Now he’d see what they’d been hiding from him. He made a gesture with his hand and flicked the playback window onto a new section of the wall.

A video stream appeared, filmed by an array of cameras inside the military vaults located beneath USSB Sanctuary’s museum complex.

The woman at the centre of Joiner’s woes, Sarah Morgan, descended from the upper level of the large circular vault. He’d already witnessed what had happened before; she’d collected her confiscated artefacts, including the precious pendant that meant so much to all concerned. The scene continued to unfold and Joiner knew the process of redaction reversal had been a success, as previously unseen footage carried on without pause or break.

The lithe form of the English archaeologist went from room to room, deactivating the opacity walls to transparency until she decided to enter a room full of ancient parchments. Stealing a few of these precious documents, she then stopped in front of a display cabinet. The image automatically spun round to capture the thief’s progress. Letting out a scream of frustration, Morgan heaved over the stand, creating a domino effect which trashed the whole room. Not stopping there and incandescent with rage, she then stormed into an adjoining room and grasped a massive Anakim shield suffused with jewels. No sooner had she grasped the object by its handle, than a faint ripple shimmered across its face. Unable to move the seven foot tall artefact, the woman made to rest the shield down, but before she could do so a wave of purple energy erupted from its surface, blinding the cameras with a flash of light so powerful it rendered the screen blank. Joiner assumed whatever had transpired had disabled the cameras in the vicinity as that was the end of the video. He rewound it and watched it back.
Why was she so upset at seeing the Anakim parchment on display?
He zoomed in on her face at the time of the event to see an expression of recognition. She’d seen this parchment before.

Joiner searched through her dossier and found an intelligence profile that revealed Sarah Morgan was said to have claimed to have found similar maps some time back. Information gleaned from friends and colleagues by GMRC agents had revealed they’d been lost in a fire which had also claimed her mother’s life. Joiner began to understand his quarry’s motives. He turned to another document. From what he’d read before, this woman’s lifelong mission was to find evidence of a lost race of Hominid, Homo gigantis. Now that she had such evidence she would be attempting to reach the surface and release her discoveries to the world. He shook his head at her folly. The stupid girl was fleeing to her death, escaping from a facility that would protect her from the next wave of asteroids. Sometimes, it seemed, restricting the truth could prove detrimental to the bigger picture.

Joiner moved on to the section where the shield had activated, slowed it down and rewound it before viewing it again. He ran the footage through a spectral enhancer. At the time of the shield’s activation he could clearly see the pendant concealed beneath the woman’s clothing grow hot in response, the outline of the pentagonal disc revealed under operation.

He spooled up the next film, where the woman entered the military’s highly restricted laboratory complex.

His eyes grew wide and he stopped the stream and enlarged the image. He’d seen a small amount of this file but, like the other two, all three had revealed very little of note with regard to Project Ares, despite Selene indicating otherwise when she’d warned him off the subject. Had she been unaware that Joiner would be receiving a limited view of what had transpired?
If she had,
Joiner thought with satisfaction,
her warning backfired as it only served to tell me the files contained useful information about the project.
A mistake he hoped she might live to regret.

On-screen he could see a cluster of logos and signs on a transparent door. Two of the signs read:

U.S.S.B. SANCTUARY

in partnership with

GMRC R&D DIVISION and

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

WARNING!

RESTRICTED AREA

Level 10 Alpha

Special Access Personnel Only

And beneath these, sandwiched inside the glass itself, were the emblems and logos of the respective partners, one of which consumed Joiner’s attention like no other, the symbol he’d been chasing ever since he’d seen its name:

He took an involuntary step closer to the screen and resumed the footage, his eyes transfixed on every detail.

The thief continued into a large chamber, her Deep Reach helmet deploying its breathing mask as she passed through a set of decontamination jets. Inside, she ran from an area which held a number of self-contained laboratories and into an adjoining chamber. The angle switched to a new set of cameras, following her progress. She approached a fifty foot high monolith, the only object on show. Surrounded by a pool of light and a host of monitoring equipment, the ancient piece of architecture had the form of a giant pentagonal prism. At its heart, a large, transparent rectangle had been built into the artefact and Joiner realised it was the front panel of a three dimensional container which housed some kind of fluid. Sarah Morgan placed her hand on one of three circular indents located on the front of this curiosity. The liquid inside darkened and a glow bloomed at its core, intensifying into a dazzling star of light.

Like Morgan before him, Joiner hadn’t noticed a scientist who approached her from behind; disturbing her from the wonder Joiner now shared. The light died and Sarah Morgan proceeded to interact with the man, before distracting him with a computer readout and then knocking him out with a well-executed bash to the head with a heavy piece of equipment. Joiner rewound the footage and completed another spectral scan, identifying the glow from the pendant as again it activated on cue. He switched his attention to the massive Anakim relic. Heat signatures failed to reveal anything interesting, the viscous fluid contained inside the structure appearing as uniform as it did from the outside.

He knew further analysis could be undertaken, but he didn’t have the software or inclination to tackle such a time-consuming process himself. There was also another problem; he didn’t want anyone else to be privy to his actions, especially not the Committee. This meant he would need to requisition an artificial intelligence console for his personal use. It was the only way he could ensure full concealment. But such units were expensive and few in number, and results were by no means guaranteed. Plus, acquiring one might raise suspicions – although, upon deliberation, he decided that was a risk he had to take.

Moving on, the next section of video showed Sarah Morgan stealing yet another artefact, a small orb-like object which induced some kind of fit, sending her collapsing unconscious to the floor. Joiner fast-forwarded the stream, finding nothing further of note, just the woman recovering to flee from the restricted complex.

The final file revealed little new material, apart from a similar incident to one he’d just seen. This time another woman, an SED employee, had attempted to stop Morgan from fleeing the base. After catching the orb that had been thrown as a last resort, this new character had been sent into a violent seizure, ending in death. It seemed the murder was anything but, more a case of self defence leading to a fortuitous result, at least for the thief.

Joiner returned to his desk to ponder over what he’d seen. He brought up the footage again, this time on his workstation. He paused the stream at the point where Morgan activated the shield. He then introduced the next file alongside at the instant where the giant prism had glowed from within. He leant forward, running each one side by side in slow motion, stopping them time and again to rewind and replay. Slower and slower he ran them until they crept along, a frame at a time. Joiner’s vision narrowed into tunnel-like intensity, fixating on the power that flowed from the devices. His pupils dilated, he could feel, smell, sense, the infusion of power on display. A power such as that could make a powerful man almost invulnerable. He licked at his dry lips, his desire to wield the device, this pendant, all-consuming.

Chapter Fifteen

So
, Joiner thought,
Project Ares is intrinsically linked to Anakim technology. This is what the Committee sought, personal power, not a watered down version wielded through administration, media and money. Project Ares is the power of the Anakim, the power of the Gods
.

A spark of motivation ignited in his mind, a glimpse of what could be, a sensation of truth extracted from the ether.

‘I have to have that pendant,’ he whispered to himself. With it he could turn the tables on the Committee, run his own programme off the books, a personal black project. He’d operated such things before, normally coined ‘a civil servant’s wet dream’ by the parliamentarians that strove to cull the excessive spending of taxpayers’ money. Of course, Joiner knew, like most of the establishment, this was the greatest illusion of them all. Money could be created when needed; it was then down to the redistribution of debt to those beneath to ensure the system remained functioning. The process wasn’t perfect, but then neither was humanity, so the world continued to spin and the people continued to work – without it only chaos and war would rule, as without control, those that needed power, lusted after power, needed to maintain power, would do anything they could to secure it, regardless of the consequences to the masses. It had been theorised that in the future artificial intelligence might be able to produce a system that would negate the destructive impulses of man, but until that time, Joiner knew the current system would continue uninterrupted, at least as long as money persisted, which was where Professor Steiner had been so dangerous.
A world without money.
He shuddered at the thought.

The intercom buzzed and Joiner’s face twitched in anger at the interruption. ‘What is it?’

‘Director, Agent Myers requests an audience.’

‘Then send him in!’

‘I would sir, but it appears your doors are locked.’

Joiner let out a curse and deactivated the mechanism.

Seconds later Agent Myers entered, his eyes straying to the smashed glass and damaged screen.

‘Report,’ Joiner said.

‘I’m no further ahead on the leak, but I’ve put in place a number of misdirections, so anyone looking to capitalise on them will inadvertently implicate themselves.’

‘The task, what about the task?’

‘Completed, plus I’ve sent out feelers regarding Project Ares and the space station incident. So far I’ve been able to acquire snippets of information, but I’m hoping to get a bigger picture as time passes. Covering our tracks from our own people has proven more difficult than I’d envisaged, the GMRC is a formidable machine.’

‘Good.’ Joiner’s expression relaxed. ‘Very good.’

‘When did you want to set things in motion?’

‘Give me fifteen minutes.’

Myers’ manner became concerned. ‘I’m not sure that’s possible. It’s a matter of security.’

‘It’s not a request.’

Myers gave a chastened nod and waited for further orders.

Joiner banged the table. ‘Get on with it, then!’

Agent Myers scuttled from the room and Joiner glared at his retreating back before re-securing the doors and resuming the footage on-screen. His eyes narrowed as the woman made the Anakim shield glow with power. ‘I know who you are, thief,’ he murmured. ‘I know what motivates you; I know where you’re going.’ Joiner paused the image and touched where the pendant rested at the base of her neck. ‘You have what I want, Sarah Morgan, and there’s nowhere on this planet I can’t find you.’

Chapter Sixteen

A pillar of rock, weathered by time, emerged from the gloom as dust from the collapsed Anakim bridge settled around it. Clinging to this stony column, covered in pulverised masonry, was a small figure.

The heat plume receded and Sarah Morgan deactivated her Deep Reach helmet’s breathing apparatus and brushed the debris from her visor.

Jason’s voice crackled over the com system. ‘Sarah, thank God. I tried to activate the winch but it didn’t work.’

‘The signal must have been blocked by the heat and dust,’ she said, gazing out to where her friends stood on the distant bluff.

‘We thought we’d lost you.’

‘I thought I’d lost me.’

‘Are you okay? Can you see a way down?’

Sarah checked her vital signs on the visor. ‘I feel okay.’ She looked down at herself to make sure all limbs were present and accounted for. Her heart raced when she couldn’t see her left leg, but before she could accept the bad news she realised it was just bent back, wedged in a cleft and disguised by the remains of the bridge.
Idiot
, she thought with a wry shake of the head.