Avenging Angels (The Seraphim Chronicles Book 1) (43 page)

seventy

Aban reached the area adjacent to the entrance mound after his long, slow crawl across the desert floor. The journey through the shrubbery had lasted over five hours, just as he had estimated. From his vantage point he could see the large service lift used to deliver vehicles and equipment up to the surface and down to the depths of base operations. The landscape surrounding the entrance mound was devoid of vegetation for a radius of twenty yards. He could see no way to sneak past the sentries and into the lift without detection, even as night was settling in.

Prior to arriving at the mound, he had discovered a series of mechanical vents scattered around the perimeter. With the primary entrance not feasible for base access, he crept back to the vent closest to his position and furthest from the lift.

He removed the grating and set it aside in the sand before relaying a message to Campbell.

“LOCATION OF SUSPECTED DISSIDENT BASE REACHED. COORDINATES EMBEDDED IN TRANSMISSION. COMMENCING INFILTRATION. NEXT REPORT IN 60 MINUTES.”

A large bush thrived a few feet from the grate. Aban scooped out a small furrow beneath its foliage and placed his assortment of equipment and supplies inside, and then he buried his cache with sand and debris.

He lowered himself head first into the opening, using his feet to pull the grate back across the top. He held himself upside down in the duct until grate was secure in its original position. His arms flexed from the strain of carrying his full weight, but his strength was more than sufficient to lower himself in absolute silence down into the darkness below.

SEVENTY-ONE

Campbell picked up his private headset communicator and contacted Reynolds. He relayed a brief summary on the progress of the male agent, sharing the coordinates Aban had provided him in the transmission. 

Reynolds’ excitement was irrepressible.

“That has to be their location!” he crowed. “I don’t care what you say, Campbell, I’m preparing an assault. If it goes bad, then we’ll just call it a training exercise. Besides, no one’s supposed to be out there anyway.” With those ominous words, the line went dead. Campbell pulled the communicator from his ear.

For the next sixty minutes, he had nothing to do but wait for the agent’s next report and strategize his next move. He rolled his chair away from the desk and leaned back, placing the tips of his fingers together. The chair began spinning in a slow circle as he calculated what his next best move should be.

SEVENTY-TWO

In Jack’s virtual workroom, Gideon had continued monitoring all the communications going in and out from beyond the borders of the LTZ. A series of short cryptic messages caught his attention, the name Evans having been mentioned several times. He deduced that these messages were relevant to Jack and Evangeline, identifying their originating source of the messages as same general area that he had lost Jack’s signal.

Gideon traced the most recent message to its recipient. The message had been sent to Derek Campbell, the Director of Angel Affairs on Olympus. Gideon reviewed the security feeds around the Angel Affairs office and tracked Campbell’s movements going to and from both the Cathedral and The Crown of Olympus.

Calculating what Jack would do if he had been there, Gideon decided to monitor Campbell’s communications and hack into the security system of the Cathedral. Attempting to access the security systems of The Crown proved difficult upon his first attempt. He almost tripped a virtual alarm backing out of the network interface, but he managed to mask himself from the anti-viral scrubbers. The Crown would have to wait. Jack would not want Gideon to compromise his anonymity.

Gideon changed his tactics and bypassed the Cathedral security system. He was surprised to find a robust security system for a monastery. He did not anticipate finding multiple firewalls and layers of encryption for a building that housed non-aggressive Angels. It was like outfitting a daycare center with military-grade anti-aircraft batteries. It was overkill, and suspicious enough to warrant further investigation.

Gideon disguised himself as a security upgrade package, sneaking past the security protocols into the building’s central server. Within nanoseconds, he detected the extensive amounts of power used by a building that, according to all records, was no more than a simple dormitory. He scoured the security feeds and discovered the secret room with twin sensory deprivation tanks, similar to the ones used in the TRTV procedure.

Each tank was connected to powerful transmitters located on the topmost levels of Olympus. At the time, the security feed showed Gideon a man and a woman occupying either of the two tanks. He cloned the tanks’ monitors and noticed the data streams appeared to be telemetry from a remote-controlled device in the same area that the coded Evans messages had come from. He affixed those displays above his console among the others he had been monitoring.

Jack would want to know about this development as soon as he came back within communication range.

SEVENTY-THREE

Aban had maneuvered his way deeper into the Dissident facility without detection. Creeping through ducts and access shafts, he noted a distinct lack of a wireless network. He was accustomed to gaining access to sensitive security areas via his console, which contained the most sophisticated decryption algorithms on Olympus. Within this isolated facility, however, he felt like he would have more success if he tried hacking into a stone. Unless he found a data port or a console hardwired into the building’s network, he would have to rely solely on stealth and instinct to venture within the base unobserved.

He progressed through the building’s corroded mechanical ductwork until he came across a secondary network distribution room. There were racks of consoles, displays, and other hardware with wires extending from the room into the plenum spaces. He attached a small device to one of the consoles and created a wireless connection for himself. Unless someone in security searched for a new wireless network device, he could begin to search the facility’s interior faster without risking exposure.

As far as Aban could detect, the base’s security was primary focused on preventing intruders from entering the facility. He discovered no patrols or security scanners of any kind monitoring the base’s interior. He concealed his device within the distribution room, satisfied that if someone did happen upon the room it would not appear out-of-place or suspicious.

Aban was entirely unaware that Gideon had been tracking his movements long since before entering the base through the mechanical vent. Gideon had piggybacked an encrypted data stream over the secret wireless network to conduct his own search for Jack and Evangeline.

With his equipment secure, the agent returned up into the air duct and began scanning the facility for signs of his quarry - Jack and Evangeline Evans. He roamed within the tubes of dead air until he came upon a large air exchange chamber. He braced himself between the sides of the chamber, proceeding to scan through the Dissident’s security camera footage.

The majority of the limited camera feeds were tasked with monitoring the perimeter around the entrance mound. Aban smirked under his hood as he watched a shadow moving underneath a bush, rustling its branches. None of the sentries noticed the discrepancy in the coloring of the sand as the shadow crawled out of the visual range.

After fifteen minutes of scanning through the various internal camera feeds, Aban discovered something useful to his mission. He located security feeds showing the Evans’s together in a mess hall talking to two Dissidents. The ports on the backs of their heads were telltale signs that they were former TRTV pilots. His lip curled in a contemptuous sneer as if on instinct.

But the mess hall footage was hours old. He was no closer to finding the current location of the Evans’s. On the camera feed, Aban watched the pilots and the Evans’s leave the dining hall and make their way to a stairwell. There were no cameras monitoring the stairs, so he had to improvise a way to track their movements. A short time after his targets disappeared, he noticed a power spike on the lowest level of the building.

He closed the interface to the security footage and opened up other programs he found on the network. He opened the building’s power utilization logs and began scanning for areas expending the highest rates of power. These areas indicated increased activity, making for excellent secondary targets. Every other level of the facility had maintained a consistent power draw. However, the lowest level consumed over one-quarter of the entire building’s power supply.

His eyes widened as he discovered among these lower levels a sterile room secured behind an airlock. Even among the lowest level, this particular room was the cause of the power surge.

This discovery merited an investigation.

The Dissidents were hiding something significant from their own people in that room, he just knew it; this could lead to invaluable information for Campbell and the Quorum. Deactivating his arm console, Aban crept along the duct until he reached a vertical shaft descending down into the depths of the base.

He stared down the dark shaft with his IR vision and saw that it dropped several stories. The climb down would require another inverted descent, but the strength in his arms had never failed. Leaning forward, he placed his hands on either side of the wide opening. When his body was vertical in the center of the shaft, he used his legs to suspend himself above the multi-story drop.

Like a spider plunging toward prey tangled within its web, he inched himself down the shaft from one handhold to the next. A blast of cold air erupted from the depths below and rose up to meet him. He froze in place, closing his eyes and filling his lungs with the subtle odors carried in the air.

The new scent was unmistakable. The memories of passing clothing and other personal items between the other Agents flooded his mind. He remembered the words Campbell spoke to the group of operators after filling their lungs with the distinct odors of the traitors. “Everything else takes a backseat if you find them.”

His arms strained at the effort as he increased the speed of his descent. He needed to get to another location where he could transmit a message back to Campbell.

He had located the priority one targets.

SEVENTY-FOUR

Gideon continued monitoring the agent’s telemetry. The primary display in Jack’s virtual workroom showed Aban’s movements as if Gideon was playing a first-person adventure game. So far, neither the agents nor the personnel in the Cathedral had become aware of Gideon’s presence in their network. The hacking protocols that Jack had installed had rendered him virtually invisible.

As the agent descended deeper within the airshaft, Gideon noticed a faint signal emanating from inside a large, secure room on the lowest level of the underground structure. If the agent continued in his current trajectory, his path would end at the source of that signal. Gideon recognized the beacon like a Human could recognize a voice - he had found Jack’s interface.

Gideon tried boosting the gain on the signal, but had little success. He needed to warn Jack of the oncoming threat, but the interference from the building’s structure made it impossible to break through the agent’s stronger telemetry signal.

With few options available, he began to calculate the various scenarios of how to take advantage of the agent’s telemetry in order to contact Jack without alerting either the agent or the Cathedral of his actions. As he monitored the agent’s movements, graphics representing the various scenarios began flashing on Gideon’s central display.

SEVENTY-FIVE

The agent finished his descent and entered the air exchange chamber adjacent to the shaft. He activated his communicator, transmitted a message toward Olympus, and hoped the encryption on his signal, if detected, would be mistaken for background static.

“TARGETS ONE AND TWO DISCOVERED. DETECTION IS UNAVOIDABLE. PROCEEDING WITH SUPERSEDING ORDERS TO ELIMINATE PRIMARY TARGETS. CONFIRM MISSION.”

Within the crawl space next to the air exchange, the agent found cabling from the security camera feeds in the secure room. He confirmed that the Quorum’s top priority targets, Matthew and Elizabeth Chapel, had been located. Under his hood, the agent flashed a menacing grin. He knew the discovery would please Campbell and improve his own standing as an operative. He imagined his triumphant return to the Cathedral after assassinating the Chapels. He intended to request a promotion to Senior Operative, and he expected to get it.

Campbell continued to spin in the chair of his private office in the Cathedral. It took him a few turns before noticed the message that flashed on his display. He had been contemplating on his next move while the agent searched for the Evans’.

His eyes caught sight of the keywords he had trained himself to look for. His rotation stopped with a jerk as he slammed his hands down on the desktop. With a malicious grin, he pulled the earpiece to Reynolds’ private line and placed it in his ear. He leaned back into his chair and pressed the tips of his fingers together with tight anticipation. He had been waiting for years to deliver the news that the primary targets had been located.

“Yes!” Reynolds yelled into his ear. “What is it?” From the impatient tone of his voice, Campbell knew he had interrupted another one of Reynolds’ trysts. The man’s depravity knew no bounds. When he left Reynolds’ office, he said he was going to plan an attack on mystery location in the event that the Evans’ were there.

“No doubt…” Campbell thought to himself. “That his brilliant strategy will be to barrage the location with troops and lay waste to the entire area; leaving nothing to be salvaged for study. This man has become short-sighted over the years.”

“General.” Campbell began with a respectful tone. “The agent has checked in and we’ve verified that Matthew and Elizabeth Chapel are, in fact, on site. He is proceeding with overriding orders to kill them at all costs.”

The maniacal chuckle that escaped Reynolds’ lips let Campbell know that he had stopped dallying with his staff and had focused on engaging in the bloody slaughter of every Dissident in the facility. Reynolds did not care about collateral damage or the number of casualties. All he cared about was eliminating a threat to his way of life.

“I’ll be in the Leviathan, on station, in two hours to begin the full assault and mop-up of the entire area.” He purred into the headset. “Make sure the Chapels are already dead before I arrive.”

Campbell heard the soft clack of the receiving earpiece landing on a hard surface before the channel went silent. He removed his own earpiece and replaced it in the drawer. He stood up from his chair and walked out toward the control room where the operators laid in their sensory deprivation tanks.

“Clear the room!” He shouted at the small group of men and women that were checking the accessory equipment of the operator’s interface tanks. He looked over toward the main display to the technicians that seemed to be running a series of diagnostics of Sergeant Davis’s system. The double signal load had caused a series of spikes in her vital signs. The chief medical officer walked up to Campbell.

“Director.” He said with indignation. “Sergeant Davis’s system can’t handle the signal load for much longer. We need to abandon the process. If we don’t cut the signal to the male agent right now, we’re going to lose both of them!”

Campbell looked into the eyes of the doctor with the ambivalence of a cat watching paint dry. “I said clear the room.” He growled.

The doctor planted his feet and folded his arms. “No, sir!” He glared back with hard-set eyes. “Not until you decide to end this mission and cut your losses. It’s better to lose only one operative than both to your ego.”

Campbell and the doctor stood nose to nose for several seconds before his hand lunged up and gripped the man around the throat. “Now, listen very carefully.” He said with controlled rage. “Each man, woman and piece of equipment in this room is expendable. I can find someone else to do your job, Doctor, if you feel unequal to the task. One more word out of your mouth that does not comply with my orders and I’ll consider them your resignation and make preparations for your
retirement party
. Is that clear?”

The doctor choked and sputtered out an incoherent compliance and sucked in a furious breath when Campbell shoved the doctor against the console of Sergeant Cross’s tank.

The audience of technicians scurried out as a jumbled pack, concerned that he was about to assault someone else. Once he was alone, he checked the monitors to make sure the female agent was still secure in her hiding place in the desert. He then reviewed the monitor of the male agent and saw that he was still crouched in the air exchange duct watching his console for confirmation of his orders.

Campbell entered a code on the console. The male agent’s tank hummed and opened to reveal the body of a small, elderly man submerged in the water. He sat up in the tank and stared in confusion at Campbell. “Is there a problem with the mission, sir?” He asked as he wiped water from his face. Campbell snuck a brief glance at the other tank before responding.

“No.” He replied in a low voice. “No problem.” Sergeant Cross continued to stare in bewilderment. “The General is organizing an assault on your location.” He began. “He wants you to watch the targets until the attack commences. We don’t want there to be any possibility that they can escape once the attack begins. If you manage to survive and escape the attack your orders are to rendezvous with your partner.”

He paused. “And then find and detonate the base’s power plant.” He stared hard down at the man in the tank.” Can you do that, Sergeant?”

He sat up straighter in the tank and gave Campbell a resolved salute. “Yes, sir!” He replied. Campbell gave him a brief salute in return and the man laid back down in the tank. When the lid closed, Campbell reset the process to reconnect the operative to his agent.

He needed a moment before the male agent reactivated. Before the reconnection process was complete, Campbell typed a brief message into the console directed to the female agent.

She had been aware that someone or something suspended her use as a repeater. She used the brief moment to stretch even though her Angel body did not need it. The insects and reptiles that had taken refuge underneath her body scattered into the darkening desert. She wondered how long she would continue to act as a repeater for her partner once his signal resumed its flow through her body, when the message from Campbell appeared on the virtual display inside her hood.

“ATTACK ON ENEMY BASE TO COMMENCE IN TWO HOURS. AGENT WILL ELIMINATE PRIORITY TARGETS. ONCE TARGETS ARE ELIMINATED, SEVER YOUR LINK WITH AGENT AND RETURN TO BASE.”

“So…” She thought. “That’s how they’re going to
retire
the old man.” She assumed that even though he had been an agent longer than any other pilot in the program had; his capture in the arena was unforgivable. His mistake risked the security and secrecy of a program that had existed unknown to the general population.

Once Matthew and Elizabeth Evans were killed, all she had to do was stand up and walk back to Olympus. The sudden disconnection would send a feedback overload into his system and his nervous system would never recover.

The male operative regained control of his agent and stood up from his crouched position. He wanted to get himself closer to his targets so he could strike at a moment’s notice. He twisted his torso back and forth, rolled his shoulders, and flexed his head from side to side in anticipation of his upcoming assault. He felt like a snake coiling in preparation for a strike.

He had to leave the air exchange and crawl into the smaller duct that ran above the corridor to get to a better position from which to watch and wait. He slithered through the duct until he was above the outer airlock door.

He secured himself next in the duct then used his arm console to access the internal communications network. He wanted the two Dissident pilots out of the room before he struck. Attacking a handful of unarmed civilians was not a concern. He did not want to have to deal with more than one person with military training. He traced their communicators and sent a phony message to the pilots. It would have made his mission more difficult to contend with three people with hand-to-hand combat training all at once. The agent reached the bottom of his descent and entered the air exchange chamber adjacent to the shaft. He activated his communicator and transmitted a brief message toward Olympus, hoping the encryption on his signal, if detected, would be mistaken for background static.

“TARGETS ONE AND TWO DISCOVERED. DETECTION IS UNAVOIDABLE. PROCEEDING WITH SUPERSEDING ORDERS TO ELIMINATE PRIMARY TARGETS. CONFIRM MISSION.”

Within the crawl space next to the air exchange, the agent found cabling from the security camera feeds in the secure room. He tapped into them via his console, confirming with his eyes what his nose told him before his descent. The Quorum’s top priority targets, Matthew and Elizabeth Chapel, were alive and had been located.

Under his hood, the agent flashed a menacing grin. Campbell would be pleased with this information, and perhaps his previous blunder in the arena would be forgiven. He may even get a promotion. He imagined the triumphant welcome he would receive in the Cathedral after assassinating the Chapels. It would only be a matter of time before Campbell would appoint him to Senior Operative.

Campbell continued spinning throughout the hour in the chair of his private office in the Cathedral. In the middle of one of his revolutions, he received a notification on his display. His eyes caught sight of the keywords he had trained himself to look for on the glowing screen. His rotation stopped with a jerk as he slammed his hands down on the desktop. With a malicious grin, he pulled the earpiece to Reynolds’ private line and wedged it in his ear. He leaned back in his chair and pressed the tips of his fingers together with tight anticipation. He had been waiting for years to deliver the news that the primary targets had been located.

“Yes?” Reynolds yelled into his ear. “What is it?” From the impatient tone of his voice, Campbell knew he had interrupted another one of Reynolds’ trysts. The man’s depravity knew no bounds.