Michael Vey 3 ~ Battle of the Ampere (14 page)

“Your little coup won’t work,” Two said. “I’ve alerted the guards. It’s just a matter of time before you’re back in the brig.”

Hatch looked at her for a moment, then said softly, “You’ve alerted what guards?”

Just then the boardroom door burst open and a dozen guards in black uniforms ran into the room. They were led by a squad captain dressed in purple.

“
Those
guards,” Two said. She turned to the captain. “Thank goodness you’re here. Dr. Hatch has gone rogue. Arrest him.”

The captain just looked at her, his eyes narrowing in contempt.

“I gave you an order!” she shouted.

“These aren’t ours,” Schema said to Two in a low voice.

“You’re correct, Schema,” Hatch said, looking more amused than angry. “Which, honestly, I find refreshing, as it’s so rare that you’re right about anything these days. But, I suppose, even a broken clock is right twice a day.”

“What are you up to, Hatch?” Schema said.

“I’m relieving you of your command,” Hatch replied. He turned to the captain. “Secure them.”

“Yes, sir.” The captain turned back toward the board table and shouted, “Everyone stand with their hands behind their backs. Now!”

None of the board obeyed, but looked to Schema for direction. Schema stared at Hatch defiantly.

“You were given an order,” Hatch said.

No one moved.

“No?” Hatch said. “Okay, then. Captain Welch, shoot one of them.”

“Yes, sir,” the guard said. “Which one?”

“It’s your choice.”

He turned his gun on Three.

“Wait!” Schema said, holding up his hand. “You don’t have to do that. We’ll do what you say.”

“Indeed you will,” Hatch said. He turned to the captain. “Next time someone hesitates to follow an order,
shoot them
.”

“Yes, sir.”

Hatch looked at the board. “Leadership is such a burden. You know how it is, Schema. If you threaten to cut off someone’s finger for breaking a rule, you’re going to have to cut off a few fingers before everyone figures out that you mean what you say. So which one of you is going to be our demonstration? It’s your decision. Here’s your first opportunity to show us. Everyone stand up.”

Everyone quickly stood.

“Now sit down.”

They sat down.

“Stand up!”

They stood up.

“Now . . . stand down.”

Half of the board sat down, the other half wavered, confused, crouched somewhere in the middle. Everyone looked at Hatch nervously.

“What do you want us to do?” Four said.

Hatch grinned. “I’m just toying with you,” he said. “Sit down.”

Everyone sat.

“What’s your point, Hatch?” Schema said.

Hatch’s grin turned to a scowl. “My point is I’ve listened to you fools for too long. From now until the end of your miserable lives, you will do precisely what I say. Everyone stand.”

They all stood.

“Secure them,” Hatch said to the captain.

“You heard him,” the captain barked. “Everyone put your hands behind your backs. Do it now!”

Everyone obeyed. Two of the soldiers walked around the room zip tying the board members’ hands together. Suddenly, Ten spun around, attempting to grab the soldier’s gun. One of the guards fired an electrode from across the room, dropping Ten to the ground.

“Secure him,” the captain ordered.

Two soldiers grabbed Ten, tied his arms behind his back, tied his feet together, then dragged him away from the table, laying him at Hatch’s feet.

“What are your orders, sir?” the captain asked.

Hatch crouched down next to Ten. “Were my orders too complex for you?”

“You’re not going to get away with this,” Ten said.

“Of course I will,” Hatch said. “Throw him out.”

Schema said, “You don’t need to do that, Hatch. He’s sorry. Aren’t you, Ten?”

“I’m most certain of that,” Hatch said. He turned to the captain. “Open a window for me.” He pointed to the middle panel of the external glass wall. “That will do.”

The captain pointed his submachine gun at the tempered glass and pulled the trigger, ripping out a large section. The smell of gunpowder filled the room.

“There’s your exit,” Hatch said to Ten. “I hope you’re a good swimmer.”

Ten was trembling. “I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Will you?” Hatch asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. I want you to drown.”

Two soldiers dragged Ten over to the hole in the glass, then turned back to Hatch. Hatch nodded. The guards lifted the man and threw him out. The sound of his screaming could be heard until a distant splash ended it.

“Good-bye, Ten,” Hatch said. He turned to the captain. “Think he can swim with his hands tied behind his back?”

The captain shook his head. “No, Admiral.”

“I don’t think so either,” Hatch said. He looked over the rest of the board members. “As I was telling you, you always have to cut off a few fingers before they get the point. Anyone else care to test my resolve?”

The board members just stared at him fearfully.

“Maybe you do learn. Take over, Captain.”

“You will comply with our every word,” the captain said. “All of you come to this side of the room and kneel.”

Everyone except for Schema hurried to the starboard side of the room, next to the glass. The captain walked up to Schema and pulled him out of his chair, forcing him to kneel, then kicked him in the stomach. Schema gasped, then fell to his side, coughing fiercely.

Hatch turned back to the three displaced board members, Six, Seven, and Eleven. “Take your rightful places,” he said.

The three expelled board members hurried back to the table. Hatch looked at the other board members. “Funny how things change. Just an hour ago you pitied these three. Now you would give anything to be one of them, wouldn’t you? I told you there would be consequences.” He turned and looked at Schema, then slowly walked up to him. “Living in Peru, I couldn’t help but learn a little about the Incan culture. They were far more advanced than most people realize. They created architectural feats that stump our modern architects. They created massive pyramids that we cannot duplicate. They performed successful brain surgery.

“True, they had their brutal side and practiced human sacrifice, but here, too, they showed their keen intellect and understanding of the nature of politics. Whenever an Incan king conquered another
kingdom, the fallen king was sacrificed in front of his subjects so there would be no mistaking who was in charge.”

Schema turned pale. Hatch crouched down in front of him. “You didn’t really think I was foolish enough to come back here unprepared?” Hatch rose and faced the kneeling board members. “Just another example of your chairman’s remarkable shortsightedness.” He turned back to Schema. “You are relieved of your chairmanship. Be grateful I haven’t relieved you of your life.”

“You’ll pay for this, Hatch. This is mutiny.”

“
Admiral
Hatch,” Hatch said calmly. “Of course it’s mutiny. And pay? Where exactly would I send the check? To whom? If you’re implying that this scenario might somehow end differently than me in charge and you in prison, you can disabuse yourself of that notion. There is no cavalry. Everyone answers to me. That’s the inherent problem with delegation, Schema. Somewhere along the line the power gets . . . short-circuited.” Hatch turned to the captain. “Captain, lock them all in the same cell in the brig. Cell One.”

“Yes, Admiral.” He spun around. “All of you on your feet. Now!”

The members of the board all struggled to their feet.

“What are you going to do to us?” Two asked.

“You will be given a trial. But don’t worry. I will be just as merciful as you planned on being to me.” He turned around. “Captain of the guard, I want
former
chairman Schema hung upside down by his feet. I want the last of his loyal subjects to know that he’s been conquered.”

“Yes, sir.”

Schema turned white. “Don’t do this. You need me.”

“I need you like I need a kidney stone,” Hatch replied. “Take him out.”

Two soldiers lifted Schema to his feet and carried him out. Six other guards walked the rest of the board members out.

As they exited Quentin started to laugh, followed by the rest of the teens. Hatch smiled. “That was more amusing than I thought it would be. I’m almost sorry it’s over.”

A
fter the board members had been removed, Hatch walked to the head of the conference room table. He pulled out Schema’s former seat, pausing before sitting. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this. Please allow me the pleasure of savoring this moment.” Hatch took a deep breath, then slowly sat in the chair. A dark smile crossed his face. “It’s about time.”

Seven began clapping, and she was quickly joined by the others still in the room.

“Thank you,” Hatch said. “You may sit. Quentin and Torstyn, let me have you up here next to me. Quentin at my right, Torstyn at my left.”

Everyone sat, the former board members in their assigned seats, the teens taking the empty seats closest to Hatch.

Hatch stood and walked up to the cabinet against the port wall
and opened it, exposing a whiteboard. “The information I am about to share is C10.”

The teens’ expressions turned more somber.

“Is that understood?”

“Yes, Admiral,” the teens replied.

“Call me sentimental, but you, my electric eagles, may still call me ‘sir.’ ”

“Yes, sir.”

The board members looked at one another. Eleven raised his hand.

“Yes?” Hatch said.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Admiral. But what is C10?”

“Explain C10, Quentin.”

“Yes, sir. C10 is the highest level of Elgen confidentiality. It means that what we are about to be told may not be repeated outside of Admiral Hatch’s presence, even with one another. The penalty for divulging C10 information is death by torture.”

“Is that clear enough?” Hatch asked.

“Yes,” Eleven said. “Thank you.”

“Let me see the Elgen salute,” Hatch said.

The youth raised their left hands to their temples. The other board members watched, then imitated.

“Very well. What I’m about to share with you is called Operation Luau.” Hatch wrote the words on the whiteboard:
OPERATION LUAU.

He turned back around and tossed the pen on the table. “We need a land base. We need a place to carry out our experiments and build larger EMP weapons—a base far away from prying eyes, and invisible to the CIA, KGB, MI5, Mossad, or even any local government. A place with political autonomy. I have found just the place in the South Pacific, midway between Hawaii and Australia, near the islands of Samoa and Fiji—the Polynesian island nation of Tuvalu.”

“Tuvalu?” Bryan said.

“If you’ve never heard of Tuvalu, don’t worry, neither has anyone else—which is precisely why it is of interest to us. It is the world’s fourth smallest country, behind Vatican City, Nauru, and Monaco, and consists of three reef islands and six atolls.

“Unfortunately for them, the islanders declared independence from Britain in the 1970s. This was highly unwise, as they are little more than an island of hula dancers and fish spearers. They have no military, spend no money on defense, and have no means of defending themselves outside of a puny, impotent police force. Their navy consists of a single Pacific-class patrol boat provided by the Australian government for maritime surveillance and fishery patrol. Even the
Tesla
could blow it out of the water.

“Tuvalu is facing an energy crisis. Rising ocean levels have damaged two of their diesel-motor power plants. Unfortunately for them, their third stopped working two months ago.”

“Fate has been kind,” Six said.

Hatch looked at her. “Fate is an excuse for people who are too stupid or too weak to make their own future,” he said. “We sabotaged the plant. Then three weeks later we engaged our Starxource plant, operating on Funafuti atoll, in Vaiaku,the capital of the island nation. We are now in complete control of the country’s energy.

“In preparation of our arrival, we have, as we did in Peru, built a rehabilitation camp for the reeducation of the natives.

“This is my plan: We will gather the Elgen fleet at the Peruvian Port of Callao, where we will load up with supplies and evacuate our troops from our Peruvian Starxource plant, leaving behind a squad of soldiers to guard what’s left of the plant. From there it will take us two weeks to reach Tuvalu.”

“How will we reach the island without them knowing?” Quentin asked.

Hatch put both hands on the table and leaned forward. “Oh, they know we’re coming. But we won’t encounter resistance. In fact, they plan to greet us with flowered leis and luaus. This is a diplomatic visit to celebrate the opening of our Starxource plant.

“We have invited the Tuvalu prime minister, governor general, and entire parliament to a celebratory feast. I am assured by our local Elgen administration that they are most eager to demonstrate to us their gratitude.

“As we feast, the
Faraday
will move into place outside the capital
city. Our troops will disembark, while the
Watt
patrols the surrounding oceans. Any vessel trying to enter or leave the islands will be sunk.