The World After (15 page)

“Yeah, we're pretty much at a similar distance to the two exits, but I'm not interested in them. I want to help inside.”

“Stop it!” Taylor's voice suddenly sounded sharp. “If someone escapes the attack, they will come out of these tunnels, not from the main entrance. Do you have any idea which tunnel the survivors are more likely to choose?”

“It doesn't matter. In fact I'm pretty certain that Masterson and the others will split the people in two groups. This way at least one of them will get a chance to save themselves even if they are chased.”

Taylor decided that they were alone, and the two of them walked out in the open and, with great haste, headed directly towards the tall grass ahead.

He asked, “Is there a gathering point if this is the likely scenario?”

“Under the mountains. In between the next two peaks to the one we went over, there is a very long network of caves. Some of them lead all the way to China. Our people have old maps of the chaos of crevices and lava tunnels there, and somewhere in the middle of this world of darkness there is an ancient temple. The locals believe that it was built thousands of years ago by an extinct race of giants, and they never venture near it. According to our evacuation plan, everyone that survives must gather there.”

“That's good. All logic suggests that we should head that way straight away.”

“No!” Jinhun stopped in his tracks and looked at Taylor.

“Calm down. I don't like the idea either but that's the logical course of action. Still, I want to know who we're dealing with. What about this catamaran? You said it can travel underwater?” They were nearly at the tall grass.

“That's right. It's pretty much a hybrid between a boat and miniature submarine. It's moving via electromotors built inside the two stabilizers. The transition from the two possible ways of travel is dead simple. The platform with the passengers simply shifts on its hydraulic shoulders, and this way you end up under water. It can go as low as fifty meters below the surface.”

They entered the tall grass at this moment, and Jinhun took the lead while continuing his explanations. “The air when you're under is coming through pipes that are connected to compressors that produce oxygen. Using oxygen bottles is not needed.”

“It all sounds great. How long it will take us to reach the lake from here?”

“It depends how we travel. On the surface we can travel at up to twelve knots, but under water, the maximum speed is only five. Also have in mind that the motors allow us no more than ten hours of power. Here we are.”

Jinhun twisted his body in between a cluster of swamp grass only to reach an area covered by smelly mud and straw from dead grass. Without any hesitation, he jumped in the middle of this disgusting mixture, his body sank up to his chest, and, without any remorse, he started searching for something with his right hand. It took him a minute, but then a thunk came from below him. Suddenly, the clear water surface just five feet in front of them became alive. With the smoothness of a swan, an elegantly shaped blue catamaran emerged from underneath the surface. Obviously, Jinhun had released some weight that had held it down.

The two of them swam the short distance to the machine, a perfect opportunity for Jinhun to get rid of the mud, although he was left with the smell. Without much difficulty, they pulled themselves onto the flat stabilizers and, in only five minutes, they were already travelling towards the center of the swamps.

Taylor was pleased to find out that their transport was virtually silent, and apart from the sound made by the shifting water, the catamaran was gliding without making any other noise. The two men sat behind each other in the small cabin. Before they set off, they agreed to stop once they got closer to the lake and discuss how they'd proceed from there.

Despite the smooth moving catamaran and Jinhun's great knowledge of the swamps, it took them just short of three hours before they actually made it to the last mangroves before the big lake. The last of these hours, they travelled under water as a precaution. They finally stopped in between the countless roots of the mangroves. They ceased the motors to save energy, which made the catamaran pop up to the surface. Jumping on the solid branches, they made their way to the edge from where they were able to see the whole lake. They carefully showed only their heads above the leaves.

The strange flying birds Jinhun had noticed earlier were gone. Also, they noticed that the smoke that was coming from the entrance had nearly stopped and only a thin black line was rising up towards the clear sky when they looked.

“Strange,” Taylor whispered.

“What?”

“By now, this whole lake should have been swarming with soldiers and military equipment. They couldn't have missed the unnatural activity and smoke over the lake on their satellites, even if they didn't initiate the attack.”

“You're right, something's not right.”

“He wants everyone dead,” Taylor said with pain in his voice. “It's the ATU that attacked your city.” He placed a comforting hand on Jinhun's shoulder.

The Agency for Tracking the Untraceables was the only organization on the planet that, according to the international agreement from ten years earlier, had power and right to give orders pretty much all over the world.

“What are we gonna do now?” Jinhun asked.

“We'll wait here a bit longer. Someone must come out or appear. I want to know who we're up against.” As they talked, there was no sign of life wherever they looked and the lake's surface looked tranquil and quiet.

“What about going closer. My friends?”

“The best we can do for them is to find out who we're facing and, after that, to make our way to this cave you mentioned and join the survivors there. I'm sure many made it.” Taylor couldn't know that, but he felt obliged to say it as Jinhun was shaking his head and rubbing his forehead.

The Chinaman couldn't argue with the sense of this course of action and, despite his burning desire to go to the entrance and check what was going on, he agreed to this plan.

Their attention was attracted shortly after by something that flew out of the city's smoking entrance at great speed. By the time the two men contemplated the fact that they were seeing a flying man – from the distance they were standing they couldn't tell that he was using the newest military invention – two more men flew out of the lake.

“What the hell is that?” Jinhun rubbed his eyes.

“I really hope they are not some freaks of nature, but I'm ready to say that it must be some kind of innovative device they're using to fly. After all, it's not only the Yuyuan that have talented scientists.”

“Are we attacking them?”

“Trust me, there's definitely something more to them than just the means to fly around. The fact that they were sent here on their own without the support of the militaries shows you how dangerous they must be.”

At that moment, a sound coming from their right made them turn. Two black helicopters emerged on the horizon, heading in a straight line towards the lake. Within a minute, they were able to recognize the emblem of the Indian Army on their sides.

“Come on, we must get out of here. In no time, this entire area will be swarming with soldiers, and after that it will be virtually impossible for us to get out unnoticed.” Taylor gently pressed Jinhun's shoulders and slid back down the branches towards the catamaran.

They spent the next two hours carefully making their way west through the swamps. Three times Jinhun had to quickly submerge to avoid helicopters flying over their heads; but, at least on the ground, everything stayed quiet. Unfortunately, the constant stops and changes of travel mode emptied the energy motors much quicker than expected, and eventually they were forced to abandon the machine without being able to make it to the end of the swamps.

They tried to cover the catamaran as best they could inside a thick bunch of swamp grass and then continued on foot. Jinhun lived up to his word from earlier; his masterful leadership helped them to advance surprisingly quickly through the treacherous terrain.

They just about reached the end of the swamps in an hour. All that separated them from the thick forest ahead was one last stretch of open grassland that they decided to cross as quickly as possible. The two of them had covered about three hundred yards, half the distance, on the open field when a platoon of Indian soldiers walked out of the woods right in front of them. Jinhun and Taylor stopped in their tracks and looked at each other helplessly. They were standing in the open with no cover in sight.

The moment the alarm went off Carolina jumped off her chair and, taking her father's hand, she joined the rest in the communication center, scanning with fearful eyes the many screens broadcasting live picture from different parts of the city.

Masterson, Apalikov and Fukuzawa were shouting commands left and right to try and get some order, while Hans Grossmayer rushed through the doors and headed towards the upper levels. Carolina pulled her father to one corner and, with a firm gesture, told him to sit there; and then she let go of him and hurried to catch up with Grossmayer.

A minute later, Grossmayer and Carolina were running side by side along the stone path of the lower living quarters. Above them, they were able to clearly distinguish gunshots, painful human shouts and loud baby cries. A thick smell of smoke started to fill the massive underground cavity.

Just as they reached one of the elevators, a loud explosion echoed through the space, sending strong tremors like waves all around the enclosed space. The two lifted their heads to see that the upper floors of the tall skyscrapers had caught fire, and a bright and very dangerous rain of burning debris was fast heading their way.

“We must go up and see what's going on,” Carolina said while banging on the button of the elevator until its doors opened. They stepped back.

Both Carolina and Grossmayer took a step back as the heavily injured body of Wong Wei collapsed out of the elevator. He somehow stood on his knees, but his head slumped helplessly down on his chest and two constant trickles of blood colored the stones around him. His right hand still had a machine gun strapped to it, but it stood helpless and in an unnatural position next to his body.

After the initial shock, they rushed to help him. Doctor Grossmayer gently laid him back on the stones, holding his head in his palm.

“Run,” Wong's voice was very weak. “We… can't… stop… them,” he barely managed to say.

“Who's attacking us?” Grossmayer asked.

“De…mons.” Wong's eyes remained open after the last syllable. His eyes lost their life, and Grossmayer gently put his head down and, drawing a trembling hand over his face, closed them.

The old but very strong man stood up and said to Carolina, “Come on, we must get back down. We need to launch evacuation.”

Burning debris reached them, and the feeling of desperation increased as they felt as if they stood in the bottom of hell. Above them, the flames had caught more than half of the skyscrapers already.

“There are so many people up there,” Carolina said looking up.

“I know, but we can't help them. We must save the ones we can and everything we need for our plan. Come on.”

The two ran back towards the communication center while gunshots and painful human cries continued to echo all around the cavity. The roofs of the houses around them started catching fire as they reached the end of the stone path. There they stumbled on two other running people. Carolina hugged Fabiana, while Ian MacGeady only nodded to Grossmayer, and the four of them continued together.

The four of them rushed into the big room only to find major chaos. People were shouting at each other, others were banging on black screens that had stopped providing pictures from different sectors of the city, while Masterson and Apalikov tried to shout meaningful orders left and right.

Carolina was pleased to see that her father was where she left him and only observed the atmosphere around them. She joined him as he asked, “What's going on?”

“We're under attack; they already breached most of our defenses. We'll have to evacuate.”

“What can I do?” Ademar Gamejro asked.

“Masterson, what could we do?” She pulled the American architect to her just as he rushed near them.

He looked at her face for a second and then barked, “Activate the explosives.” After that he was gone to help Akio Fukuzawa with everything as he needed to be able to activate his virus in two days' time.

“Follow me,” Carolina said to her father. The two of them made their way around the wall of the room towards the far end. She was explaining as they made their way, “The whole city is charged with powerful explosives; the detonators are at the beginning of the evacuation tunnel. The timers are set for thirty minutes, which should give us time to move far enough away. The charge is designed to destroy everything here.”

“What if in this half an hour whoever is attacking us reaches the detonators?”

“Once we enter the tunnel, we'll blow the entrance to block it. They won't have time to clear all the rubble and deactivate the bombs.”

She led him to a round tunnel through which people were already running. After a few steps, they stopped and knelt on the cold stone floor. She lit a solar lamp, and two niches close to each other were easily visible then.

“There are three detonators in each niche. Just lift the glass lid and press the green button. A timer should start. Make sure you close the lid after that; it's designed to block the sound of the clock,” she said as half of her body disappeared in the shallow niche.

Ademar Gamejro reached into the other niche, but his trembling hands forced the lid of the first detonator too much and he broke it.

“Damn.”

“What?” Carolina asked.

“My hands are trembling, and I broke one of the glass lids.”

“I doesn't matter, just make sure that all three timers start.”

They'd done it in less than a minute, and at that moment through the tunnel approached Fabiana, MacGeady, Grossmayer and Fukuzawa. Carolina nodded that everything was done and they helped with the few computers that Fukuzawa insisted to take as he was going to need them later.

Back at the entrance of the tunnel, they recognized the tall figure of John Masterson, the architect who had built this underground city.

The last people made it round the first corner when a small bang, followed by the sound of falling rocks, was heard. Shortly after, Masterson caught up with them. His eyes were red.

Their pretty large group of survivors was advancing slowly through the winding tunnel, but at least for now the terrain was flat and they didn't have to climb or descend. They used solar lamps to light their way, but they knew they needed to be economical with their use, because the tunnels in front were tens of miles long. The elderly leaders of their organization made their way to the front of the group, while MacGeady, the minister and the two women dropped right to the back of it to make sure that nobody got lost or dropped behind.

“How did you build this tunnel?” Ian MacGeady asked.

“We didn't,” Fabiana answered him. “At some point, lava made it, and after that one of the underground rivers we deviated ran through it.”

“That's why the surface is so smooth.” Ademar Gamejro joined the conversation. “Where will it lead us?”

“Soon we'll reach a big chamber from which four different tunnels run out. Two of them are dead ends, while the other two wind for miles and miles. They go under the swamps, the forest after that, and reach the surface at the foot of the mountains, but there waits a real cave labyrinth.”

“Are we entering it?” Ademar Gamejro continued with the questions.

“Yes, our goal is the heart of this complicated cave system. There is an old temple, this is our rally point, and everyone that has survived and escaped knows how to make their way to there. However, I doubt we'll stay there for too long. We have a plan to complete.” Fabiana stopped to tie her shoe.

“So, there's no turning back or delaying things?”

“No, Pa. Everything must happen in less than two days. This is the only time the virus can be activated. That's why we need to move faster.” Carolina increased the tempo, urging the slowly moving women carrying kids in front of them to do the same.

At the front of their group of about two thousand people walked the four founders of their organization. Their mood was grim. and without talking they simply made sure to set a good tempo for the rest. All computer simulations made showed that once the bombs detonated, all these tunnels that leads to the cavity splitting in four would disappear under tons of rocks. Nobody caught in it would survive.

The four white-haired men were occupied with their own unhappy thoughts, all of which gravitated around the thousands of people that were about to die in the explosion, if any were still alive.

“Do you think Jinhun and Taylor will be able to escape?” Masterson broke the silence.

“Let's hope they do. We can't wait for them more than twelve hours after we arrive,” Fukuzawa said.

“They'll make it,” Apalikov said firmly and upped the tempo, causing everyone behind him to hurry too.

After about twenty minutes, they were nearly at the place where the tunnel was splitting in four and Grossmayer said, “We don't have to stop and rest. We ought to decide if we'll all continue together or if we'll split the people.”

“I say we split. It gives a better chance for some of us to make it safe to the temple,” Masterson gave his opinion.

“Agreed,” The other two men said.

“All right then,” Masterson said. “Me and Vladimir will take half of the people and go through the first tunnel, you two and the princess take the rest through the other. Any objections?”

The following silence meant that nobody had anything against this plan. Five minutes later they reached the spacious cavity at the other end of which four dark tunnels were leading out. Their solar lamps were hardly able to reach the high ceiling above. They stopped until everyone gathered. Slowly but surely, the stretched column of people piled up near the four tunnels.

There were still at least a hundred people in the tunnel behind when a loud explosion, followed by a serious tremor, showed that the bombs had detonated. Only seconds later, a heatwave hit their faces, and the last few of the escapees started running out into the big cavity amid screams of fear and panic. The people started pushing each other and very quickly chaos overtook the situation.

Fabiana, MacGeady, Carolina and her father were amongst the last trying to make it out of the tunnel. They were trying to run, but the crowd in front was pushing too much and this actually made the movement slower. Suddenly, the monolith rock above them started cracking and, from behind, the deafening sound of collapsing rocks reached their ears to increase the panic even more.

Somebody pushed Ademar Gamejro to the ground in the cacophony, and he hurt his knee badly. The two women tried unsuccessfully to help him. Ian MacGeady pushed them away and simply lifted the minister over his shoulder and ran forward, following the two women.

This small delay saw them left behind everyone else after a few steps. They stopped, their hearts frozen as their eyes lifted up. Right above their heads, a massive crack opened with a horrific sound. Carolina's panicked shout echoed afar as she closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable.

* * *

Shimi Levy was inside one of the Predators heading towards the Yuyuan's hidden city, or at least what was left of it. He was looking through the window at the swamps below him. The area looked very alive, with numerous machines and soldiers scattering around to search every inch of the swamps.

After Lucifer had finally contacted him and gave account of his actions and that of the archangels, he left the eight men do their thing, and only after that allowed the Indian general who was in charge of the local garrison to join in.

The helicopter had nearly reached the lake. Shimi Levy stared at the thin smoke coming off the middle of the water and the huge amount of destroyed or damaged solar panels scattered around. Amongst them, a dozen military boats packed with soldiers were searching the surface carefully. The director of the Agency smiled. He was sure that, at least twice, he had flown right over this lake over the years. He really admired the genius idea to hide in between two of the major world powers. A thought made him laugh loudly; he remembered the remote and obscure places in which he had searched for the Yuyuan's base during the past two decades.

The helicopter landed on a dry stretch of land on the edge of the lake. Lucifer was already waiting. The young man jumped inside as the machine touched the ground and sat opposite his mentor.

“Report.” Shimi Levy looked at him harshly. Later he was going to analyze and look closely at the blatant disobedience shown by Lucifer.

“They'd built a truly remarkable place for themselves; but once we broke in, we hardly encountered any serious resistance. Obviously, they were hoping to remain unnoticed and did not build a serious defense system.”

“That's normal. After all, most of their founders are only scientists.”

“Whatever. We killed roughly ten thousand of their members,” Lucifer said, without any trace of emotion in his voice, “We also captured over twenty thousand more for interrogation, but nothing useful so far. Most of them are ordinary workers and have never even been to the lowest level of their fortress where all the important buildings are.”

“What about Fukuzawa, Masterson and the others?”

“They escaped for now. At the lowest level, we found an evacuation tunnel they used, but soon we'll clear the way from the deliberate landslide and we'll go after them. They destroyed all computers and useful information before they left.”

“So you couldn't retrieve anything?” Shimi Levy was getting angry.

“Not yet, but we'll see if we can find anything. Now we're trying to clear the tunnel and catch them. I can't see them escaping us.”

“Don't underestimate them. I hope you realize that your future depends on their destruction.”

“Do you want somebody alive?”

“Only Taylor Swansea and maybe Ademar Gamejro. The Brazilian government insists on having him back, but that doesn't have to be a priority.”

“Clear. Anything else? Because I want to join my brothers down there.”

“Yes, the most important thing for me is the information and the data that the escapees carry with them. I need it; but, if you can't retrieve it, just make sure nobody else does and destroy everything.”

“Understood.” Lucifer left the helicopter and, using the last drops of fuel in his wings, flew back to the entrance of the underground city.