The mag lev train eased to a noiseless stop and Bill and Fred stepped out of the car they were traveling in and onto the wide expanse of the Dulce base landing platform. There was a group of eight men loitering near some cargo containers directly across from them and they snapped to attention as Bill and Fred approached them.
"Who is in charge here?" Bill questioned Fred.
“Jack Zimmich” indicated Fred, pointing to the closest of the men, standing straight as a rod, shoulders back and chest out.
Probably in his late forties, Jack was tall and slender, his hair cut short, in a buzz cut style, like they would have had in the army. You could tell from first glance that Jack took his job very seriously. His black uniform was crisp and unwrinkled, security badge worn square and prominently with pride clipped to his left breast pocket and his shoes so polished you could see the landing platform reflected in them. Yet for all his attention to detail, looking in his dark brown eyes you could tell that he had seen things that many people would have had to undergo years of intense psychotherapy to undo. Horrific and savage things that cut through the exterior bravado he projected and reached down and touched his very soul. Bill felt a measure of pity for him for he knew the horrors that he had seen.
“Jack” Bill addressed him directly, “What are the updates on the status of our infiltrators?”
“Sir” Jack began formally “We have been tracking them by the lone signal that is available. It is on the fourth floor and moving slowly but steadily toward the core of the facility. I estimate that at the present rate it will take them another hour to get to the core.”
“Has any other action been taken?” Bill queried
“Negative sir, we were waiting for your orders before moving to intercept.”
“I’ll need to see a schematic of the fourth floor.” Bill commanded.
Ordering the rest of the men to stand fast Jack said “This way sir” and broke ranks and walked toward the side of the loading dock where there was an outline of a door etched into the stone wall. Arriving at the door he placed his hand on the biometric reader and the door slid aside to grant them access. Once inside Jack took a seat in front of a terminal and directed it to display a floor plan of the fourth floor. The screen on the wall changed from the static image of the Dulce logo to display a three dimensional picture of all the hallways and rooms that made up the floor. Jack stood and pointed to the screen where there was a yellow square “This is where the signal is at the moment.” He slid his hand to the right “and it looks like it is headed in this direction, toward the core” indicating a vertically aligned cylinder right at the heart of the floor.
Bill stared at the screen, unblinking and intense, analyzing Nick’s present course and searching for the best place to capture him. It looked uncannily like he was looking down at a bicycle wheel that was lying on its side. The hallways like spokes, originating from the center, and other hallways forming concentric circles at precise intervals away from the core. After a few moments of scrutinizing Bill found what he was looking for. A few hundred yards ahead of the present course there was a spot where one of the hallways seemed to end abruptly.
“What’s going on here?” he asked, pointing at the map.
“They are actually sealing off that part of the hall to put in a new server room” Jack replied
Bill couldn’t help but smile. It was perfect. The hall came to a dead end some fifty or so feet beyond the last spot where there were connecting corridors branching off it, trapping Nick there with no escape.
“We will take him there Jack. There is nowhere to run” said Bill
“That makes sense” said Jack admiring the idea. “How do you want us deployed?”
“I will take Frank with me and proceed this way” he said gesturing at the screen along a path that would bring them out at one of the corridors that connected to the hallway that Nick was on.
“I want you to divide your men into two groups; one group to come around this way, the other group to get in behind them and hold position here so if there is a deviation from the current path there is nowhere for them to go.” Bill added, nodding his head in approval.
Bill spent a few more precious minutes planning with Fred and Jack, during which he reiterated that nobody was to mount any sort of attack or contact without his approval and that radio communication was to be kept to a minimum. Fred and Jack nodded their agreement and they all left the small room to rejoin the rest of the group. Jack ordered his men into two groups and briefed them on the plan. Anxious to get underway, they were ready to go as soon as they had been briefed.
Everybody checked their weapons, their communication gear and set off toward the far end of the loading bay. Leaving the loading bay they entered the labyrinth of passages and hallways, coming to a stop at an intersection of several different paths. Here they split up, Jack's two teams heading off in different directions; double timing it to get in position while Bill and Fred carried on straight ahead at a fast, but not too strenuous pace. They walked in silence, each of them reflecting on what might be happening. Bill was still struggling with how and why Nick had returned to Dulce, more so the how. Who was with him that could bypass the security measures that had been put in place after his last escape? Was there someone from the moon base that was a sympathizer? It seemed the most likely scenario. Bill glanced down at the hand held tracking unit that Fred had synchronized to the local security system and he could see that Nick was still moving steadily in the same direction. He scowled and clenched his hand around the tracking unit, one simple question echoing in his mind. How?
Telarc walked stealthily in front, stopping from time to time to touch his hand to the wall and close his eyes. He explained to them that he was making sure that they were still following the correct path. He could feel the energy flow that was emanating from the core in the walls and he was using this to track their way. Any time they encountered an intersection of hallways he would stop as well, using his telepathic abilities to reach out and see if there was anyone approaching from another other direction. At one of these stoppages, his knees buckled and he clutched his head in his hands, grimacing in agony.
“I sense great pain and suffering in this facility, from what source I do not know.’ he said after he had regained his composure and signaled that it was safe for them to move ahead. Nick tried touching his hand to the wall to see what he could sense and was somewhat let down that all he could feel was smooth, cold stone. He looked around as he went, trying to see if he recognized anything from his previous time through here but everything looked the same no matter which way he looked. Doors, hallways and passages were in every direction. He was thankful that Telarc knew where he was going because he would have been lost in about five minutes had he been alone. He wondered how the other team was progressing. Telarc had told them they would know if the other team was successful in reaching the target because the lights would go out. If that happened they were to find a safe place to lay low until they were contacted by incoming forces. They were at another intersection now and Telarc, once again, had come to a stop and was standing still, eyes closed, his hands extended with palms facing away. Nick wasn’t sure but Telarc seemed to be taking a bit longer at this intersection any of the others they had encountered. He looked to the others on his team but they seemed unconcerned and were focusing on the path ahead. Telarc finally issued his okay and they cantered quickly through the intersection to the other side and resumed their measured pace down the hall.
Bill and Fred watched the intersection with unwavering attention. They had been in position for the last fifteen minutes and had taken refuge in a small closet that afforded them a view of the intersection. He had been watching Nick’s progress on his hand held device and they were so close now, the anticipation was almost painful. Bill had touched base with the other teams and while Jack’s team was in position and ready, the last team was lagging behind their prey but closing ground fast. Any minute now Bill would have the answer
s he so desperately desired. They waited in hushed silence, the quiet so dense it was deafening. Bill looked at his hand-held again. Any second now, they should pass across the hall. If he hadn’t been watching so intensely he might have missed it. Five distinct figures whipped across the hall to the other side and then slowed. He recognized Nick instantly, as he was about a foot shorter than the rest. The rest it would appear were Annunaki sympathizers. He gritted his teeth. He had had a feeling that there were more insurgents. Well, he would make them pay now. He sent the agreed upon radio signal to the other two teams, received a confirmation from each in return, and reached for the door. It was time.
As they were passing through the intersection Nick was sure he could feel a presence; a presence that he was familiar with but could not place. He conveyed his concerns to Telarc telepathically but Telarc dismissed them at once saying “That is not possible Nick, I would have felt the same presence if it had been there”. So they continued on but Nick couldn’t shake the feeling that there was someone there and he checked over his shoulder but didn’t see anything. With each step forward Nick felt surer that they were no longer alone. Telarc came to a stop. Nick, who had been looking behind again, walked right into him.
“What’s going on?” he asked and then noticed the wall that had ended their progress rather abruptly.
“Telarc, this doesn’t feel right” Nick said, panic starting to rise.
“It’s a minor setback at best, Nick” Telarc replied nonchalantly “We'll just have to double back and take another route” he added
The presence Nick could feel was still growing. It was no longer singular but many and it was closing in.
“There’s someone out there Telarc, I am telling you. I can feel it” Nick hissed, his eyes scanning the corridor wildly.
“Nick, we have been over this. I can sense the same beings you can” Telarc replied, still looking at the wall.
“But what about humans that haven’t been fully awakened to this power yet?” Nick threw out, grasping at anything that would explain the suffocating feeling he was experiencing.
The air seemed to be sucked out of the hall they were in. Telarc instantly snapped to attention and looked to Nick, replying but one word “No”.
They all spun around just as the trap was sprung, men charging from all three directions behind them. There was no time to organize any plans, it was every man for them self and they scattered, diving, this way and that for any available cover, Nick rolling to the ground behind a storage box and fumbling for his weapon. The charging men aimed their weapons and fired. Nick watched in horror as two of his team were vaporized instantly, a third, wounded and down unconscious. Telarc reached for his weapon to return fire but it wasn’t there. It must have fallen out as he rolled for cover. He stood and used his telepathic powers, blasting half of the men back and they fell dead. The rest kept coming; Telarc fell to one knee, weary from the energy he spent with his attack. Nick couldn’t just lay there and let him die. He jumped out from behind the storage box and started to aim but stopped short, his rage at the sight of seeing Bill walking toward him short circuiting his thought process. Bill was glowering at Nick smugly. His men surrounded Telarc who was still on knee as he walked forwards. Nick cleared his head and communicated with Telarc. Hold on my friend and he summoned all the energy he could. Suddenly he disappeared and that threw everything into chaos. Bill stopped walking, looking around frantically as his men started yelling, startled their prey had gotten away. It was all the distraction he needed. Nick quickly attacked the men surrounding Telarc planting an image that showed him running away behind them and as they turned to look he took out his weapon and aimed it at the ceiling and fired. He dived aside just in time as a large section of ceiling collapsed right where he was standing sending dust and debris flying in all directions and the lights went out plunging everything into total darkness. He got to his feet quickly, adrenaline urging him on. He could sense where Telarc was, the men surrounding him abandoning him as they tried to take cover. He scurried over and picked him up gently. Telarc swayed on his feet but assured Nick telepathically that he would be all right and they slipped past Bill and his men, as quietly as they could, the screams and yells of the chaotic scene fading into the back ground as they ran one behind the other their hands lightly skimming the walls of the darkened passageway they were traversing. They made a few turns blindly in the dark, hoping that their path was leading them away from Bill. When they could no longer hear the screams and yells behind them they both stopped and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
Chapter 19