Dark Matter (57 page)

The dust cloud started to clear and their senses to return.  Each of them was alive, but they didn't know it yet.  Another flash, much less than the first and they could hear the noise this time.  Dazed and in no shape to understand, George managed to stand and stumble his way out into the garden.  He was joined by the others, too stunned to make sense of what had happened, they looked around for answers.  A helicopter gunship swooped low over the house; it was hit by a streak of light and exploded, spiralling down into buildings beyond their view.  There was another explosion as it hit, flames leaping into the air illuminating the surrounding buildings with a glowing redness.

It had begun.  Whether we were fighting the aliens or them us, there was no way to tell.  However, a war was waging above their very heads and lives were being lost.  Now suddenly George felt very exposed.

'Get back in!'  George screamed at them, herding them inside.

The Drawing Room was wrecked.  They made their way into the Sitting Room at the front of the house; it was intact and gave them a view of the square.  It was a good view, but what they saw wasn't.  There were Sunarr soldiers in the square.

There appeared to be about a dozen.  Just stood there waiting.  George decided not to take any chances.  He ordered all the exterior doors locked, and the interior ones be barred with sturdy furniture.  He went into the kitchen and retrieved all the kitchen knives, handing these out to the rest of the group.  Then they returned to the Sitting Room to keep a watch on the Sunarr.  Now they could only see two standing there.  The rest had disappeared from view. 
Shit
, thought George,
shit shit shit.  Where the hell are they and why didn't I station someone here to keep an eye on them?
 
Because you are a lecturer not a soldier!
He didn't have to wait long for the answer to his first question.  There was a loud explosion as the front door was destroyed by weapons fire.  George and Solomon took positions either side of the door to the Sitting Room.  They had no idea how many were inside the house now; they heard nothing save for the firefight still raging outside in the skies above them.  The door handle twitched downwards.  George's breathing became shallow, almost none existent.  The long barrel of the Sunarr weapon poked through the increasing gap in the door.  George, changing tack, dropped his knife and grabbed hold of the weapon.  Pulling with all his might, he jerked at the weapon sending the Sunarr soldier crashing into the room.  Still holding the weapon's barrel, he fell upon the soldier as a second soldier came into the room pointing his weapon at George's head.  Solomon pushed the soldier to the side, ruining his aim.  The weapon discharged into one of the sofas, blowing it apart as if were matchwood.  The soldier was on one knee and now bringing his weapon up to fire again.  Solomon leapt on top of him, pushing the blade of her knife into the soldier’s chest.  It broke in two.  The soldier was fighting back now, and Solomon hit him square in the helmet.  She screamed in pain as three of the bones in her fingers snapped on impact.  Natasha called out.

'Mummy!'

Solomon looked up at her daughter's voice to see her struggling to free herself from Sally's arms.
I have not come this far to lose my daughter now or to leave her as an orphan!
The soldier was still dazed from the impact of the blow, Solomon looked around desperately, and then she saw the knife that George had dropped.  She lunged for it, taking it in her good left hand, managing to keep her right knee on the soldier's chest.  This time she would not make a mistake, seeing the gap between the soldier's body armour and his helmet she leaned in close to him and pushed his helmet up with her right forearm.  The long kitchen knife found its mark as she thrust it into his neck and upwards into his brain.  Waggling the handle around the soldier fell still.

Solomon stood up, pulling the weapon from the dead soldier's hands.  She held the weapons grip with her good left hand and propped up the barrel with her right forearm. 

'Move!’ she shouted at George.

George needed no additional encouragement, rolling over onto his back, exposing the chest of the Sunarr solider to Solomon.  She fired a single round into his chest, turning it into a crater.  George, winded, managed to get to his feet, and grabbed the second weapon.  George poked his head out of the Sitting Room door into the hall.  A shot blasted at the doorframe, narrowly missing him, shards of wood however embedded themselves in the side of his face.  He pulled back into the room, blood flowing down his face from the multiple lacerations.

'We've got company!'  He announced unnecessarily.

There was no time to take good defensive positions.  Solomon and George knelt down a few feet from the entrance, again on opposite sides.  A Sunarr solider rushed at the doorway, hit by both weapons the soldier slumped in the doorway.  Now the next one would have to climb over the body to get in.  The Sunarr realised this and started blasting at the walls.  There was nothing they could do now.  Just wait for the inevitable. 

A helicopter passed overhead, then swooped back to hover.  They could still see the two Sunarr soldiers out in the square; they were looking up at the helicopter as its mini-gun opened fire, literally blowing their bodies apart.  The helicopter hovered lower and now several ropes dropped down from it, swiftly followed by British soldiers.  They assembled on the ground and made a rush for the house.  The fighting intensified inside the house.  The wall between the Sitting Room and the Hall was vanishing quickly.  They could here machine-gun fire inside the house now.  Orders being given in English.  They waited, weapons still trained on the doorway.

Silence fell upon the house.  A voice called out to them in English.

'I'm Captain James Brennan.  I'm coming into the room.  Don't shoot!'

A face appeared in the doorway.  He seemed short for a soldier thought George, but he was unmistakably a British officer.  He relaxed his weapon down, but still held on to it.

'Looks like you folks have been busy.'  Captain Brennan said with a grin as he stepped over the dead Sunarr soldier in the doorway and observed the other two in the room. 

'Anyone hurt?'

'No, not really.'  George replied standing.  'It’s a good thing you arrived I was just about to....'  He couldn't think how to finish his sentence.  'Well, probably ask them to leave.  They were not invited after all.'  George offered his hand to the officer, who shook it warmly.

'That's the thing about gate crashers, no one ever invites them.'

'How did you know we needed help anyway?'  George asked, grateful for it but curious.

'We got a call, there's a protection squad based in the square.  The officer in charge, D752 Sergeant Dave Riccar called it in when the Sunarr landed.  His radio has a direct feed into the military and we took it from there.  I've got a medic with me; I'll have her look at your face.'

'Thanks.'

18:17
              10 November  [18:17  10 November GMT]

No.1 Carlton Gardens, Westminster, London, England.

The word was out now.  It had to be.  There were Sunarr troops gathering outside and they didn't look like an official reception.  Jack counted at least two dozen.  Reports came in from other sides of the building that there were soldiers there too. 

'I think they are planning an assault.  I figure they don't need the officials anymore.'  Jack looked at Severine for her response.

'So do we wait for them to attack en mass or do we start shooting them now?' 

It was clear to Jack what Severine's preference was.  He thought about it.  The only weapons they had were those they had taken from the dead Sunarr soldiers.  He figured that they would be as effective at a distance as they had been in close quarters here.  He had no idea how many rounds, or whatever they discharged, they had.  They needed to conserve their fire.  He called out to the resistance fighters.

'Pick your targets, make every shot count.  Fire at will.'

Severine was the first to fire.  Her target went down cleanly from the single burst to his chest.  A burst of fire erupted from the other side of the room, the resistance fighter shouting victory as another went down.  Others opened fire, and the soldiers fell like targets in a fairground attraction. 
They are coming in dumb
, Jack thought as the soldiers were walking towards the building.  It didn't last, as a group they opened fire and ran at the building.  Now it became about pure survival, the animal in each of the resistance fighters took over and they started to fire wildly, switching targets as the soldiers ran an evasive pattern.

A large white vessel moved into view, it was one of the Sunarr transport ships.  It fired at the building, the south side erupting in flame from the blast. 
Two more like that and we're gone
, Jack realised.  The transport ship took fire from the east.  Not enough to seriously damage it, but just enough to make it take evasive action.  A helicopter gunship swooped low over the building and fired again at the ship.  Then there was more fire, from the west.  Another gunship was up there but out of view.  The transport ship returned fire and the gunship from the west was lost, going down in flames over London, crashing out of view.

The Sunarr soldiers made a tactical error.  Instead of pushing their advantage, they took up defensive positions, planning for their transport ship to destroy the building, killing everyone inside.  Two more gunships joined the battle and now the Sunarr ship was fully engaged.  Jack pulled four of his fighters from the other side of the building to bolster their position and increase their firepower.  It was working.  The Sunarr only had weak defensive positions and therefore could be blasted out into the open by concentrated fire.  Another gunship hovered overhead, this one turned its attention to the Sunarr troops on the ground.  The mini-gun mounted on the side of the gunship opened fire, spraying the soldiers at a rate of over three thousand rounds per minute.  Once it ceased fire, there was no movement from Jack's side of the building.  He quickly sent all but two of his fighters to bolster his other lines of defence. 
We might just live through this,
he thought.

27
The Four Liberators

11:55
              10 November  [17:55  10 November GMT]

La Guitarra Mine, Nr. San Simon de Guerrero, 60 miles South West of Mexico City.

Benjamin Yogev looked at his watch,
it is nearly time
.  He made his final entry in his notebook and pushed it under his pillow.  The build-up had been long and tiring, months of slow communications by letter, encoding and decoding their contents.  Making meticulous plans for this day.  How many soldiers, where, when.  Their forces were quite strong now, numbering over a hundred.  The hope was that when it started the others would join in, whether to fight for freedom or just simply riot, the effect on the Sunarr soldiers would essentially be the same.  They would be forced to react and try to quell the revolt.  This would weaken the defences around the installations, most importantly of which was the power plant.  He picked up his rucksack; it was heavy and identical to three others in the camp.  He wished they could have made more, but they only had enough explosives for four suicide packs.  Only one was needed to get through, but one in four odds were not good.  If they failed then he expected all of the prisoners to suffer the consequences. 

He met Saeb Tibi outside.  Saeb was carrying his own rucksack.  They walked together in silence to meet up with the others.  Benjamin was sure that his friend had written his own last notes.  It had been agreed that the other would read, hold, and publish the other's if one of them were successful in gaining access to the power plant.  It was not a happy thought, but it did bring them both some sense of solace to know that their memory and their thoughts would out live them.  After more than a year together, the only thing that seemed strange to them both was that their friendship seemed perfectly normal and rational.  The fears and prejudices of their pasts had left them both.  Replaced by mutual admiration and respect upon finding that what they shared far outweighed everything else.  They were both well aware it was the extraordinary situation that they were in that had cultivated their relationship from one of need to want.  They looked forward to each other’s company now and the thought that they might lose that today weighed heavy on their hearts.  They knew the mission and they knew the risks.  They had had plenty of offers from others willing to do the job, even some lifers who figured that they had nothing to lose.  Benjamin and Saeb told them
no,
we planned this and we must be a part of it.  Leadership has its price and this was it.
  Neither wanted to die, but to fail would be a worse fate for them and everyone.  Benjamin broke the silence.

'Have you placed yourself in Allah's hands my friend.  I have myself in God's hands.'

'I have indeed.  It is his will that we are here, now for the sake of our peoples.'  Saeb replied.

'I feel it a great shame that only one of us can be right, I will miss you.'

'Not so Benjamin.  I believe that the divine shows himself in ways that we can understand.  For me that is Allah, for you it is God.  For a non-believer it is the Big Bang.  All is his will.  We will meet again and when we do the brilliance that is the Truth will shine upon us both.'

'Have I ever told you that I like the way you think?'

'Yes Benjamin, many times.'  Saeb replied as they both laughed at their own peculiar friendship.

What is it,
Benjamin thought to himself
, that I prefer the company of this man to any other?  We were once bitter enemies and now we are closer than brothers.  I would lay down my life for him and I know he would do the same.
  Benjamin thought back to his time in the military, he couldn't guess at how many Palestinian lives he had ended prematurely.  Now he felt each one to be both a stain on his character and the loss of a potential friend. 
Would that my friends, family, and colleagues could see me now.
  

'What troubles you my friend?'  Saeb asked, seeing the look on Benjamin's face.

'I was just,’ Benjamin struggled to find the right words, 'thinking about the troubles between our peoples.'

'We can concern ourselves with the past or the future.  Tell me which do you think will help our peoples the most?'  Saeb replied.

'You're right of course.  We must look to the future to have a positive one.  For now, we must attend to the present.'

They approached the gathering; the men seemed tense, focused.  The group parted to let Saeb and Benjamin into the centre, next to the two others who had sworn to give their lives to destroy the power plant.  They didn't like the term suicide bombers, nor martyrs, the first having negative overtones and the second was too pretentious, too dramatic.  The four of them were all dedicated to the same mission, one that required of them to not only get their explosive packs into the power plant but also to ensure that it was detonated inside.  They had spent a long time trying to find the best way to do this, and every time the answer was the same.  Someone would have to be inside the power plant and detonate the explosives there.  Any other way and the risk of failure was too high.  As it was the risks were still great, the Sunarr would do everything they could to prevent the attack.  That is why they needed the uprising, the rioting, and four people with backpacks.  That was why, for the four of them, it would probably be a one-way mission.  They had sought no title but the rest of the group had started calling them the Four Liberators.  Benjamin spoke to them, his voice quiet, his tone even but purposeful.

'In a few moments we will we will make a stand.  In a few moments, we will throw down our differences and pick up our tools.  In a few moments, we will attack our persecutors and overthrow their rule.  In a few moments, we will turn this prison into a shining example of humanities capacity to pull together.  In a few moments, we will become men again and stand shoulder to shoulder with those who history has judged to be great.  In a few moments we will take down these walls and once again breathe as free men.’  He paused before continuing.

‘However I must tell you this before we start.  There is more resting on us than we could have ever imagined.  I have discovered that once the Sunarr have mined all of the mineral gold on Earth they will turn to other sources.  I have to tell you that we are one of those sources.  Each of us has within us a small amount of gold.  They want to harvest that.  They want to burn our bodies to enrich themselves.  They want to kill all of us, every man, woman and child on Earth.  All of your families, all of your friends.  Everyone.  So, in a few moments, we will not be fighting just for ourselves but for everyone we know and care about.  In a few moments, unleash hell on them.  For us, for our families, for humanity!'

The crowd responded, spontaneously chanting.

'For humanity!  For humanity!  For humanity!’

Neither Benjamin nor Saeb tried to prevent them from their chanting.  It was time and they wouldn't be stopped now, indeed any intervention by the Sunarr at this moment would only inflame them more towards their goal.  Benjamin instructed the leaders of the sub-groups to go to their targets.  They walked with purpose now, backs straight, heads up, they were more than just prisoners now, they were men again, men with a mission. 

Saeb and Benjamin led their own group.  They had managed to persuade, bribe actually, one of the mineworkers to get them on the work detail closest to the power plant.  It was still a good one hundred and fifty yards away, but it was the best they could do.  However, there were some mounds and vehicles between their work location and the power plant, which they hoped would provide some cover.  They both felt that they would need it.

It began on schedule.  In the southeast corner of the mine the rioting started, led by Leroy Banks.  Shouting at first, and then banging their tools, it soon escalated as they set fire to a couple of trucks and a building.  The second truck was carrying compressed gas canisters.  As the fire took hold, they heated up rapidly.  The first to ignite took off like a rocket, as the canister ruptured and the pressurised gas forced its way out violently, sending it skyward.  The gas burnt as soon as it left the canister adding to its thrust, burning a bright arc through the air for all to see.  It hadn't been planned this way, but the effect was perfect.  Drawing the attention of everyone in the camp, it exploded over the main complex sending burning fragments of steel and a cloud of burning gas over it.  More canisters started to fire off, and the rioting spread to the southwest and northeast of the camp where Chuck Holford was leading the rioting in the prisoner barracks.  Saeb and Benjamin were in the northwest corner behind one of the sheds, watching the power plant on the mound, and the heavy weapon mounted outside it.  A number of the guards came running from the power plant heading towards the rioting areas.  The heavy weapon remained in operation, the Sunarr soldiers maintaining their posts.

It looks like this is going to be the best it will be,
Benjamin thought as he signalled to the three attack groups.  Two of the groups were situated about fifty yards closer to the power plant approaching the heavy weapon emplacement from either side.  The third was directly ahead of the Four Liberators and was split into two groups, the lead, and the shield.  The two groups started running towards the power plant, shouting and waiving their pick-axes, sledgehammers and shovel handles wildly in the air.  Those who had petrol bombs threw them, though most fell harmlessly short but they did add to the general confusion.  The lead group then started running to join them.  It was then that the heavy weapon opened fire.  It was like a hosepipe of death, the attackers falling in waves.  The Four Liberators started their run, the shield group starting theirs as the Liberators drew near.  The shield was essentially that, a human shield to protect the Liberators for as long as possible.  Long enough they hoped for one of them to make it inside the power plant and detonate their explosives. 

The plan was working, but they were dying too quickly.  The fire rate of the heavy weapon was tremendous; Benjamin could see them running out of attackers before their mission was achieved.  He had always considered himself to be fit, but he was lagging behind Saeb, as Saeb was behind the other two Liberators.  They were getting close.  Benjamin could see the entrance to the power plant now.  The heavy weapon turned on their group. 

The shield was almost gone.  The two Liberators out in front virtually disappeared before Benjamin's eyes as the weapon hit them.  A petrol bomb landed beside the weapon and the Sunarr soldier jerked as the flames leapt up in front of his face.  His aim ruined, the soldier was still firing.  It traced a path harmlessly in front of Benjamin's feet, but the arc took it across the path of Saeb.  Blood splattered out as Saeb's legs were hit.  He watched as his friend fell to the ground, helpless to move. 

Benjamin was now on level ground, the reduced effort he translated into greater speed, ignoring his screaming muscles he now knew beyond any doubt that he wouldn't have to worry about pulling a muscle or anything so mundane.  He was between the heavy weapon emplacement and the power plant.  Ordinarily the Sunarr soldier would not have fired for fear of hitting the power plant but the rucksack that Benjamin was carrying changed everything.  The soldier correctly guessed its significance and concentrated on trying to trace his fire into Benjamin.  Although moving fast, Benjamin was moving faster still.  As he came within paces of the entrance, he turned to look at his friend one last time.  Saeb was down but not out.  He was up propped up on one elbow, he waved with the other.  Benjamin waved and smiled at his friend, just as he disappeared into the power plant. 

Inside all was calm.  Time seemed to take on a whole new pulse.  Benjamin was aware of his own heartbeat, but now it seemed to be ebbing and flowing like a slow but powerful tide.  Boom..., whoosh..., boom..., whoosh..., slowly pumping his lifeblood around his system.  His breathing, which had been deep and rapid, now seemed deep and slow.  He looked around the power plant as he moved into its centre.  There were five Sunarr, two appeared to be engineers, he guessed, both bent over a panel of lights with tools in their hands.  The other three, one by the entrance to his right and the other two down the far end to his left, were Sunarr soldiers.  They were all dressed in the Sunarr soldiers armour suits, two in the standard white, one in red.  None were wearing helmets.  They all turned to see who had entered.  It was then that Benjamin got his first and last look at the Sunarr soldiers.  They were all identical.  All clones.  They looked like the other Sunarr, in that they resembled humans, but there was something about the eyes he didn't like.  They were distant, lost in a sea of their own consciousness. 

He was still moving.  The momentum of the sprint to the entrance carrying him forward.  He reached up with his right hand and clasped the cord.  He pulled it all the way down, as far as it would go.  The other end of the cord went tight and pulled against the plunger.  Forcing the plunger upwards, it in turn forced the two liquids together, mixing them as it went.  Relatively harmless on their own, mixed together they started to react.  One rich in oxygen, the other in an accelerant, the reaction expanded and with the heat generated it accelerated further.  There was so much pressure now in the containers that they strained to contain the mixture.  Finally, the seam gave way and the explosive reached the surrounding air.  Here it met another source of oxygen, which further increased its burning intensity.  Expanding exponentially now, it enveloped the whole of the backpack, which had been lined with several containers of a petrol and diesel mix.  Heating and freeing the mix, it ignited too, adding to the growing pressure wave expanding inside the power plant.