A Day of Ends and Beginnings, Part 2
Takomaan - 8:00 AM local time
“Hey, could you try that again?” Magnus’ voice came over the radio.
Leyla froze, keeping her scanner where it was. “I’m sorry?”
“Are you getting this, Alexandra? Something’s popped up.”
“I’m getting a strange reading here too.” Alexandra studied her tablet. Although she had set everything to the most precise setting, the readings were still fuzzy. “Go back a little.”
After hacking away the vegetation, they had been digging for two hours now. Everybody was a few feet deep in a pit. A mound of dirt had built up on the far side, and a ramp had been made on Alexandra’s side. Yet despite their efforts, they had found nothing…until now.
“A little more? Yes, over there. Careful…” The image cleared up, coalescing into clearly artificial right angles. “Yes, we got it! Finally!” Alexandra pumped her fists.
“Really?” Samir said.
“I think so.” Alexandra pointed at the area Leyla was scanning. “It’s over there.”
Gulichi brought his shovel down on the spot. At first, he only got dirt. But on the second swing, the tip of the shovel abruptly stopped with a loud and metallic clang. “I can’t believe it…”
“We found it!” Alexandra set down the tablet, climbed into the pit, and picked up a spare shovel. “Let’s get digging!”
The four of them concentrated their work on the spot, and gradually a metallic hatch appeared. Alexandra replaced her shovel with a brush and lightly cleared away the remaining dirt.
“We should really be more careful,” Leyla said.
“Leyla, it’s not like a zombie’s gonna pop out.”
“We’re opening up something that hasn’t been touched in thousands of years! Who knows what kinds of traps are down there? Or…monsters?”
Gulichi picked up his rifle. “If I spot anything that moves and isn’t us, I’ll deal with it. Samir?”
Samir sighed. “You guys are getting worked up over old movies. I’d be more concerned about all that age making the metal brittle.”
“Want me to try again?” Gulichi asked.
“No thanks, I don’t want to try my luck.”
She continued brushing carefully, tossing up a small cloud of dust. Samir coughed and stepped away. “Tengri, that’s almost as bad as the dust from April 2.”
A little bit later
The entire hatch emerged from the dirt. It was a dull gray square, with bolts ringing its edges and what appeared to be a lever and lock in the middle.
“It looks surprisingly normal,” Leyla said.
“Guess they design their hatches the same way we do,” Gulichi said.
“One question though,” Samir said, “How do we open it?”
“Yeah, I’m wondering the same thing.” Leyla used the scanner to point at the lock. “The ancients definitely didn’t skimp on security. Makes you wonder what else is waiting inside.”
Alexandra lightly laughed. “Imagine that, the archaeological find of the century, something that could save a country and thousands of people, getting stopped by a simple lock.”
“I wouldn’t call it simple,” Samir said, “I doubt they made their locks the same way we did.”
They heard footsteps from above. Magnus peered over the edge of the pit and waved. “So I take it we found our super ancient miracle cure?”
“Not exactly.” Alexandra explained the situation with the lock.
“At this point, why don’t we just bash it open?” Magnus said. “It’s been thousands of years. That metal’s probably brittle by now.”
“It would’ve broken when Gulichi hit it, though,” Alexandra said.
“I didn’t put in my full strength,” Gulichi said, “I was too afraid of damaging it.”
“Damaging it?” Leyla said.
“This
is a historical relic, isn’t it? It would amount to cultural vandalism if we damaged it.”
“Imagine what we could learn from the metallurgy, the lock design,” Alexandra said, “If we break the hatch now, there’s no guarantee we’ll find another one somewhere else.”
“Alexandra, it’s just a hatch,” Magnus said, “There’s only so many ways you can design one. Just break it open. We’re pressed enough on time as it is.”
“No, we should find some other way first. If we can avoid damaging it, we should.”
“And breaking it might unleash all manner of
spooooky traps,” Leyla said.
“Leyla, if the metal’s been degraded enough that we can break it open, the same should apply to your alleged traps,” Magnus said.
“So…” Gulichi held up his shovel. “You guys want me to do it or not?”
Before any of them could react, Samir unsheathed his scimitar and drew over the edge of the hatch. Then he reached down and pulled the lever. He pulled hard, and the hatch popped open, throwing up more dust and revealing darkness underneath. Setting the hatch down, he sheathed the scimitar and looked at the others.
“It’s unlocked. Or the lock fell apart. Guess they did skimp on security.”
“Or maybe it’s the
first trap,” Leyla said.
“The f-first trap?” Gulichi dropped his shovel, picked up his rifle, and aimed at the dark opening. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it!”
“Calm down!” Alexandra said. “Nothing could’ve possibly survived or remained powered down there for all this time!”
“You don’t know that!” Leyla said.
Apparently, Gulichi had caught some of Leyla’s fear, despite having not watched the same classic adventure movies. Or maybe… “That’s why we brought weapons, right?”
Alexandra sighed.
I swear, they’re worse than Alex and Thea watching a horror movie. Making up her mind as fast as Samir had, she gathered all of her equipment around her.
Shovel? No, leave it over there. The shovel was tossed against the dirt wall.
Flashlight? It was strapped to her belt, but she now turned it on.
Tablet? It was in her knapsack now.
Gauntlets? She reached into a box and took out Olga’s gauntlets. Alexandra slid them over her forearms and adjusted the straps, then put on additional guards for her upper arms and shoulders and connected them to the wrist components, so the gauntlets could actually hold her weight. As a result, the gauntlets worked best in the hands of lighter individuals.
Maybe we should’ve used the rope instead, but hey, I want to make sure Aunt Olga’s stuff still works! She fired two cables at the ground near the edge of the pit, embedding them deep in the dirt. Then she leapt into the pit before anybody could react.
Alexandra was in the air for one long second. The sudden feeling of freefall was like the crest of the roller coasters she used to ride in Rhodes. Her heart leapt up to her throat, as did her stomach. She held back an urge to vomit. Then she hit a button on her gauntlets, and her arms were suddenly pulled up by the cables going taut. The gauntlets had locked the cables in place and now used both the edge of the opening and the ground outside as counterweight to stop Alexandra’s fall. Directly under the edge, her feet made contact with something hard and metallic. Probably the wall. Her senses settled back into place, having taken a little bit to realize she was no longer falling. As her heartbeat and breathing remained elevated, she brought her mind to bear on her surroundings. She now saw the flashlight shone on the wall in front of her, confirming her deduction. It was a wall. There were regularly spaced grooves as well, probably where a ladder was long ago.
“Alexandra!” Magnus peered into the hole. “You okay?”
Alexandra gave a thumbs up with a smile. “On that day, humanity received a grim reminder…”
“That you’re still a huge dork.”
“Hey, I got to be like Aunt Olga if I want to use her stuff!”
“Anyways,” Samir butted in, “What do you see down there?”
Alexandra moved her hip in such a way to shift her flashlight into shining down. The floor was only a few feet down. “Guess they liked their ceilings as high as we do.”
She tapped the button again. This part was like rock climbing. She let out more cable at a slow but regular pace, gradually lowering her onto the floor. Soon, her feet touched down with a small echo, telling her the room was a little big.
“We should have enough rope,” she said, “Toss it down anywhere. The area’s clear. Oh, and can you help dislodge the cables?”
“On it!” Magnus said.
It took a minute, but Alexandra felt the cables going loose again. She hit the button, and they reeled back into the gauntlets like tape measure being put away.
Leyla crouched down at the edge of the hole. “So…I can’t see much down there. You any better?”
Alexandra swung the flashlight around, trying to find anything of interest. She saw nothing other than metal walls and stone floors,, covered in what appeared to be long degraded tiles. A hole in the ceiling looked like somewhere a lightbulb would have been placed. There was a doorway at the far end of the room. The accompanying door lay on the floor next to it in pieces. It didn’t appear to have been violently destroyed. The damage came from the lack of maintenance over the eons. She was surprised there was still something left.
“We’re standing in a place nobody’s been in for thousands of years.” She was starting to realize the significance of being where she was. “It feels like I’m walking through sacred ground, even if I see nothing but a room. The stories this room could tell…it feels like I could just reach out and read it, if I look more. You guys could lend me a hand, too.”
“But is it safe?” Leyla said.
Gulichi appeared at Leyla’s side, rifle ready to go. “Is it?”
“Don’t worry, the room’s clear,” Alexandra said, “Now let’s move all of our stuff down, and we can start exploring!”
Magnus rolled his eyes. “Yay, dungeon crawling…”
Baku - 7:00 AM local time
“We’ve pushed through the second line.”
The briefing was conducted in the improvised tent city that housed the Roman exiles. Gebhard, Shayan, Börte, Igre, and the rest of the military leadership attended, as well as Izinchi and what remained of the civilian government. Other generals who were occupied on fronts elsewhere were still present via radio.
Everybody in attendance stood around the map of Baku and the Absheron Peninsula. The Roman forces were stationed in the west, at the base of the peninsula, while the Crusaders were arranged in three lines to their east, running north to south along the width of the peninsula. The first two lines had been overrun, and remaining unit counters had been moved back to the third line.
“The Crusaders are currently planning a counterattack in this area.” Gebhard pointed at a spot on the southern coast, near where the peninsula met the mainland. “According to our scouts’ estimates, they have one full-strength armored battalion.”
“One battalion?” Izinchi said.
“Yes,” Igre said, “It may not sound like much, but we can’t underestimate them, even after everything that’s happened. We’ve dealt with these tactics before on the march south. Jerusalem would pressure peripheral defenses with a large number of armor, then suppress the front with more troops. If they break through our lines, the defenders of the third line could sortie and attempt an encirclement. We’d be finished.”
“So we’ve tae deal with them before they dae, eh?” Izinchi said.
“Yes,” Shayan said, “Our objective is the destruction of the staging ground for their counterattack and the elimination of the armored battalion.”
“What about losses so far?”
“Our losses since operation start are within acceptable parameters.” They had indeed lost a few tanks and a dozen troops in the last two hours, but all units maintained cohesion. Morale was still high. “A couple units can be reassigned.”
“Let’s gie on with it, then. What aboot the Liberation Legion?”
They turned their attention to the eastern tip of the Absheron. One Roman unit counter was surrounded by three Crusader ones.
“Making steady progress so far,” Gebhard said, “Refineries 1 through 4 have been secured. They’re starting to push in from the shore.”
“Already?” Izinchi looked surprised. “I thought they were supposed to secure 5 through 9 first.”
“That’s what I thought, but then Corporal Marks explained it was part of a strategy to secure those other refineries.”
“He’s jumping ahead in objectives,” Shayan said, “It borders on insubordination.”
“You could call it initiative,” Börte said, “They jump ahead in objectives to secure earlier ones.”
“It still concerns me,” Gebhard said, “They should have cleared it with me before doing it. That’s chain of command.”
“In
my experience, the battlefield moves much faster than military bureaucracy. A competent battalion leader must be able to improvise new ways of achieving the objective.” She said that in spite of herself being in her twenties, while Gebhard was above retirement age. Gebhard interpreted it as an implication that his decades of experience in old wars would not apply to this one.
“But if I’m not informed of it, any tactical benefit gained would be outweighed by setbacks on the strategic level.”
“Chain of command should always be respected, yes. But it should not be stifling.” Börte clasped her hands. “Yes, I agree there should have been better communication. On the other hand, if the reality of the battlefield demands it and it does not sabotage strategic objectives, then we should encourage our soldiers to take the initiative. They’re the ones out there.”
“Generals,” Izinchi raised her hands in a conciliatory gesture, “Let’s all calm down. We can discuss this once the operation’s over. Right now, we should focus on winning.”
---
Ruby reloaded her rifle and looked behind her. The rest of the squad was fanning out to secure Refinery 5. The Crusaders defending it hadn’t expected to be hit from behind. Any radio warnings they could have gotten from the defenders of Refinery 4 had been jammed.
“Hey, Ruby!” Billy yelled from up ahead. “Need you up here!”
Ruby took off and met Billy about twenty feet away. They crouched behind an abandoned forklift.
“You’re moving a bit slow, for a scout.” Billy flexed the arm of his exosuit and checked the movement of the shoulder gun. “Especially compared to me.”
“What’s the plan?”
Billy pointed to the northeast, at Refinery 5’s northern side. “We have to clear out the Kreuzies there and cut off reinforcements from 6 and 7.”
“What about the rest of the squad?”
“They’re suppressing the remaining defenders of 5 and pushing the line against 6.” Billy took out a paper map of the refineries and drew a line of attack. “The two of us will be enough, especially with the exosuit.”
Ruby memorized the attack plan and nodded. “It’ll be just like Normandy, right?”
“
Oil.”
“Fine, let’s get on with it. But can I add something to the plan?”
“I’m all ears.”
Five minutes later, the Crusaders on the north end of Refinery 5 heard the whirring of a forklift’s motor rapidly approaching. The outermost soldiers barely had the time to see the explosives duct taped to it before Ruby detonated them. While the dust and smoke was still settling, Billy set upon them with the exosuit, Ruby following close behind. She hugged the wall near a loading bay, waiting until there was a pause in the enemy gunfire before continuing. Once she was able to make out the shapes of the enemy, she tossed a grenade and hit the ground. A loud boom echoed in the air and rippled through the ground. When she got back up, the enemies were gone.
Low caliber bullets raked the ground about two feet away from her. Too close. She took cover in a destroyed doorway and scanned the surface for any stragglers. When she found nobody, she looked up and spotted a Kathartes drone hovering over the battlefield. Its bladeless rotors had allowed it to sneak up on them in almost complete silence. It carried no Thronaxes, but it was one of the few remaining of its model that had been mounted with machine guns. Most had been destroyed during the offensives of April 2.
“Billy!” She made eye contact with her fellow ex-rebel and pointed upward. “Drone!”
Billy found the Kathartes immediately. The exosuit’s shoulder gun promptly aimed upward—Billy having to lean back a little bit because the gun couldn’t aim at that high of an angle—and fired a quick burst, striking the drone across its upper left and lower right rotors. It went into a spiral and plummeted out of the sky, shattering against the rooftop of Refinery 5.
“North side secure,” Billy said, “Begin the assault on Refinery 6.”
Frankfurt - 5:00 AM local time
The Panopticon server rooms lay ten floors down, at the very end of a floor that was designed almost like a maze. It was filled with unrelated server rooms and winding hallways, all reinforced with concrete and steel that could withstand high temperatures and heavy gunfire. Intruders would then be diverted to the wrong rooms or into dead ends, where they would be slaughtered by Hellhounds. But that was assuming they didn’t have the floor plan or taken control of the Hellhounds.
“Moritz,” Ludolf said, “You’re first through the door. Then me, then Qazai.”
“
Verstanden,” the Crusaders said.
“Alright,” Binar and the rebels replied.
Moritz pushed on the door to the stairwell with one hand, while the other readied his gun. The door swung open, revealing a dark hallway, lit up in night vision green. The Hellhounds that would have shredded less-prepared intruders on sight instead stayed inactive, having been given a standby command from Ludolf. The map in Ludolf’s Panopticon HUD drew a route on the floor, a bright white in a sea of green. He sent it to everybody else in the squad. “Follow my lead.”
They slowly advanced through the maze. Although all of the Hellhounds had been neutralized, none of them let their guards down. At each corner, Moritz went around first, followed by Ludolf. Each Hellhound was sent a second shutdown command to be sure. The rebels made up the rear. That way, they could watch for attacks from behind, but they could also keep their eyes and guns on the Crusaders in front of them.
At the end of a door, they reached a door. There was nothing setting it apart from the other doors they had passed, but the map indicated this was the one. One rebel attached a breaching charge to the area around the doorknob, while Moritz and Binar readied their guns. Everybody took a step back. “Clear!” There was a bang. Sparks and smoke flew from the charge, and the door flew open. Moritz went in and swept the room, followed by the rest of the squad. “All clear.”
Ulm
“General, this is Ludolf. Gate is open. Repeat, gate is open.”
Cheers and applause erupted in the situation room, though only among Frederica’s rebels. The Crusaders said nothing. Heinrich wanted to cheer, but he had to keep up appearances. All he could do was smile.
“Awaiting admin credentials,” Ludolf said.
Having made the earlier decision, this one was much easier for Heinrich. He typed in his credentials and transmitted them to Ludolf’s Panopticon. “Key is sent. Repeat, key is sent.”
“Unlocking.” As Ludolf said that, data scrolled across Heinrich’s screen. The connection had been established and the upload was now in progress.
“It’s working.” Heinrich couldn’t believe it was working. “We should soon have full control of the Panopticon network.”
“How long?” Frederica said.
“I’d say…seven hours?”
“That’s not soon at all,” Sigmund said.
“It’s better than nothing. Only problem is we’d have to hold the facility for that long.”
“Can we do that?” Sigmund was concerned. “We don’t have the manpower.”
“We have the drones,” Heinrich said, “It should buy us some time.”
“Sigmund, I’m going to need you to monitor the surroundings for reinforcements,” Frederica said, “Call in all of our remaining cells in Frankfurt. General Dandolo?”
‘Yes?”
“I need more of your troops.”
“You’ll have them.” Heinrich looked at his staff. “You heard her. Get our boys in position ASAP.”
Isfahan - 8:00 AM local time
The door swung open. Alex opened his eyes and sat up. He didn’t expect them to come by so early. Did they move up his execution several hours?
Damn Mozaffar, he lied again…
“You here to take me now?” He spat at the guards outside.
“We’d like nothing more than to go home, but unfortunately not.” One of the guards casually lit a cigarette and blew out a small cloud of smoke. “We’re here to spend even more taxpayer money fattening up you pigs.”
“Pigs?”
“Yes, that’s what you are. Taking our charity and giving nothing back to the nation. You’re only fit to slaughter for the greater good.”
“No, I mean pig
s.” He was hearing some grunts outside now.
The realization hit the guard. “Ah, right.” He turned to his colleague. “Bring in the prisoner!”
The other guard tossed Angelica inside and took off her gag. The Norman immediately responded with a loud “Damn you,
bâtarde! I swear when we’re free—”
The guards didn’t even pay attention to her outbursts. Angelica lunged for the door, but they slammed it in her face. All she could do was pound her fists against the steel. “Let me out! Damnit, let me out! We’re the good guys here!”
“You do know that nobody says ‘we’re the good guys’ like that, right?” Alex said.
Angelica looked at Alex and finally recognized him. “Alex?”
“Uh, hey, Angelica.”
“So this is where they put you.” Angelica looked around the room. Her eyes settled on the chains and the cot, then on the drab concrete walls and floor. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”
“How’d they get you?” Alex didn’t want to waste the remaining time he had left. “Last I heard, you were with Julian.”
“That’s the thing,” Angelica said, “I really don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
Angelica cautiously looked around the room again. “Not bugged. Good. Not sure if they didn’t post someone at the door, though.”
“Something sensitive, I take it.”
“Yes.” Angelica spoke quietly. “We were trying to rescue…someone we all know who could have helped us.
He—” She clearly meant Julian. “—gave me an infiltration route. But it failed. I was captured instantly.”
“You messed it up?”
Angelica shook her head. “No. Definitely not. I followed the route exactly to the letter, yet as soon as I started it I ran into a Persian patrol. Next thing I knew, I’m here.”
“Then Julian messed up.”
“No, I don’t think so.” Angelica remained confused. “Julian
never messes up.”
“He can’t catch everything.”
“When has he failed us in the last two months?” Angelica said. “Why would he mess up now, when the stakes are even higher?”
Alex thought for a moment. He hadn’t been that involved in Julian’s plots, but everything he heard pointed a good picture of the boy’s mentality. A perfectionist, with contingencies upon contingencies. Paid extremely close attention to every detail. Covered every possible variable. Thinking many steps ahead to see which thread to pull to get the desired result. Why would he fail now? Unless… “Maybe he didn’t mess up.”
“He…didn’t?” That confused Angelica even more.
“You were the one who says Julian never messes up,” Alex said, “So what if he didn’t? What if this was his plan all along?”
“Okay, let me get this straight,” Angelica said, “So I was supposed to free…our target. I fail, get beaten up by a few soldiers, and am thrown in prison where I can’t do anything but wait to die. And you’re telling me
this was what Julian wanted all along?”
“Maybe,” Alex said, “I’m not certain, but it does line up.”
“H-He wouldn’t do that to me.” Angelica’s voice now filled with a stammer. “Or a-any of us!”
“But maybe he just did.
“But
why, though? Even if he could have done it, why did he?”
Alex lay down on his cot. “Beats me.”
---
The operating room was quiet. Josh lay face down on the operating table, his arms strapped down with sterile leather. Mozaffar couldn’t see the surgeons’ faces behind their masks and goggles. Their gloved hands reached into trays and picked up scalpels and syringes. None of them had anesthetic—it couldn’t be used in brain surgeries. Whatever that man was going to feel, it would hurt.
But to everybody else in this room, it’s what he deserves. He would be lying if he said he didn’t feel the same way. He did not sympathize either. He felt nothing at all. Josh had been responsible for innumerable atrocities in at least four countries. He deserved to rot in jail for his crimes. Yet…
“Imagine what data that Panopticon has!” Parviz said.
“Even if the user doesn’t remember, his implant will record nearly everything he sees,” Theodor said, “And not only that, you can program it with whatever commands you want, on the go!”
“The perfect killing machine is within reach…” Parviz said. “With the Panopticons, our troops will become invincible!”
“Not just invincible, but completely obedient,” Theodor said, “Your orders will be followed exactly to the letter, with no dissent or deviation.”
“I can’t wait for this surgery to be over. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. Right, Mozaffar?”
Mozaffar didn’t share their enthusiasm, but he forced a smile. “I’m looking forward to the gala.”
“Oh, the gala.” Parviz dismissively waved. “That’s nothing compared to what’s next. The world’s entering a new age, and this new age will be Persia’s.”
Persian hegemony, built on Jerusalemite technology and Jerusalemite atrocities… Mozaffar again looked down on Josh. Sure, that man didn’t deserve any sympathy. He even felt a little fear looking at the face of one of Jerusalem’s worst killers. But the power they would gain from his suffering…that was what scared him even more.