Anaz-Voohri (28 page)

“I’m not disabled anymore,” Zack railed as they entered the lobby of shiny steel, Italian marble floors with intricate borders, and green stone columns. “You don’t have to be so nice to me. I can kick your butt, now.”

“At your convenience."
Dylan took a smart bow. “But I’m nice to everyone, man, not just you.”

Zack wondered why Dylan had been so mysterious about working with Archer on the Lemnian Armor. And all Carrick said was that they’d be test subjects.

Dylan winked to the security guard in gray uniform behind the central lobby desk.
“Hi, Ned.”

“Good Morning, Corporal Brady,” the security man said jovially. “Who is your friend?" Ned punched a few keys on a keyboard and Zack’s face appeared on the screen. “Ah! Captain Zack Duncan. I have a badge for you. First go through the metal detector. Once inside, you slide your pass to open the doors, but only in your area of clearance. No wandering around. Mr. Archer’s lab is on the fifty-seventh floor.”

Zack almost felt as if he were back at the Pentagon. “You don’t mess with security in this place, do you?”

“We have to be careful. We do important research in here." Ned emphasized the
we
,
as if he personally took credit for every scientific breakthrough performed in the building.
A great attitude for a security guard.

Zack and Dylan emptied their pockets to go through the metal detector then joined a handful of white coats with badges waiting for the elevator. By the time they reached the upper levels, no one remained in the elevator but the two friends.

Zack had seen Archer’s file. He’d heard about the man from Carrick and Dylan and was eager to meet him. “So this is the place where they determine who is a hybrid and who is human?" Zack also thought of the ten percentile of inconclusive tests. Although it affected few individuals, as only a few dozen hybrids had been tested so far, it angered him to know that innocent people might get sacrificed in the name of global security.

The door opened on a sophisticated lab, with steel tables, marble counters, glass tubes, and a full array of plasma screens. At one end, a glass-walled office stood. At the other, an empty space behind a glass shield ended at a thick blast wall, lined with steel and nicked with bullet marks and black fire burns.

“What’s this for?" Zack found it odd to have this kind of set up at the top of a building.

“Weapon testing.
You’ll see.”

Zack noticed the shells and half melted bullets on the floor. The nearby bullet-proof glass surrounding the area looked intact. If that glass and steel resisted the best modern weapons, they must be quite strong indeed.

Archer came out of his office to meet Zack and Dylan. Tall, in his thirties he had striking dark green eyes and short reddish-blond hair. Despite the white coat, Archer had the laid back attitude of an Indiana Jones, easygoing and sure of himself, but ready to pounce if anything went wrong. The nicks and scars on his face and hands attested to his military past.
“Right on time."
He offered a strong handshake.

Zack liked Archer on sight. No compromise, no bullshit in this serious man. He lived for his work. Still, Zack couldn’t help ask, “How are you doing with reducing the ten percentile inconclusive hybrid DNA tests?”

Archer raised his brow. “You don’t waste time. I like that." He led them around the lab and stopped in front of a tray holding a batch of test tubes. “I’ve been improving accuracy and speed. The inconclusive range is now seven percent and it takes only two months instead of three to get final results. Everything takes time.”

Zack inspected the tubes labeled with names. Nothing remained anonymous in this lab.

Archer picked up a tube labeled McDougall. “This one looks like it’s finally turned. See? It’s positive. This guy is definitely a hybrid.”

“Do you ever get to test people you know?" Zack knew how it felt to condemn a friend or a family member to death. He’d done it to his sister.

“I’ve been lucky so far. All I see is their files. This guy is a big liquor magnate. He lives in a mansion that looks more like a castle. He doesn’t know he is being investigated. A servant sent his DNA. According to the woman, they have regular secret meetings at his place. It could very well be a hybrid hub.”

“Good job." Zack still wished there were a better way. “Carrick will be overjoyed.”

“Now, about our own experiments."
Archer led them to a wall where jellyfish-like suits hung in a glass case. “Did Dylan brief you?”

“Not at all."
Zack had a funny feeling when a smile passed between Dylan and Archer.

Archer used a remote and the glass case slid open. “I give you the Lemnian Armor.”

“Strange name."
Fascinated, Zack stared at the suits.

Dylan chuckled. “Archer is a bit of a Greek Mythology nut.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Many scientists were called nuts before me." Archer rubbed the bridge of his nose. “In any case, Lemnian comes from the Greek Island of Lemnos, where Hephaistos, son of Zeus and Hera, forged magical armors for Achilles and made an invisible net to restrain his unfaithful wife, Aphrodite.”

“Wasn’t he also Vulcan, the god of the forge?" Zack still remembered a few history classes.

“Yep.
That’s the Roman equivalent of Hephaistos.”

Zack finally got it. “Whereas the company’s name, Haepheon Technologies." He reached out to touch the pearly gelatinous suits.

Archer grabbed Zack’s wrist with surprising speed and strength. “Not yet.”

“Yeah, man." Dylan laughed. “These things bite. You need the shot first.”

Archer went to a stainless steel drawer chest and pulled out a wrapped injection gun with Zack’s name on the package. “Pull up your sleeve.”

Guinea
pigs indeed. Zack obeyed but didn’t like the idea of risking his newfound health as a lab rat. “What’s this?”

“Nanobots."
Archer tore the wrapping and pulled out the injector.
“Tiny little robots that interact with your blood.
I already tuned the armor to your particular DNA and the nanobots will tune you to the armor, so you will work together as one.”

“And it doesn’t work without the shot?" Zack winced at the prick of the tiny needles in his forearm. Despite his long familiarity with hospitals, he still hated shots.

Archer injected the liquid slowly then removed the injector. “Not only it doesn’t work without the nanobots, but the armor would be lethal if anyone other than its rightful owner tried to wear it. “

Zack massaged the sore spot to facilitate blood flow.
”Neat trick.
Why isn’t this widely used on the battlefield? What’s the catch?”

Archer opened another package. “These prototypes are priceless, of course, but even on a production line it would still cost over five million per armor..." He injected Dylan with his own dose of nanobots. “And the effects only last a few hours before the nanobots are rejected by the human body. I’m working on a longer-lasting formula."

Zack’s curiosity won over his doubts. “So how do we do this?”

When Archer activated the remote, the hanger holding one of the jellyfish armors extended out of the case. Archer motioned to Zack. “This one’s yours. You take it and put it on." If you had weapons, you’d wear them on the outside of the suit.

The material felt gelatinous to the touch, like a viscous rubber toy made to disgust kids. The suit opened and closed through a frontal zipper and included a tight hood. As soon as Zack stepped into the suit and zipped it up, the armor enveloped him seamlessly and became invisible. “Wow!" Zack touched himself but couldn’t feel the suit anymore.

“Now, activate it by touching your left wrist.”

Zack did it. “It tingles.”

“It’s working." Dylan grabbed and donned his own suit.
“Told you it was way cool!”

“No time to waste now." Archer walked purposefully toward the other end of the floor, way ahead of the two friends. “Zack, you go to the far side of the shooting range.”

“You mean the blast wall full of bullet marks?" Zack wondered why he’d volunteered and resented Dylan for dragging him along.

“Oh, and wear these under your hood." Archer threw him a pair of protective earmuffs. “So we can hear each other.”

Zack caught them and slipped them over his ears. The com system inside allowed him to hear Archer and Dylan talking behind the bullet-proof glass shield as he dragged his feet toward what looked like an execution wall.

Behind the glass, Archer grabbed an Uzi from a drawer, snapped a cartridge into the magazine and aimed through a shooting slot.

Zack didn’t like the feeling in his gut just now. “Eh! Are you sure this thing works?"

“We’ll find out, won’t we?" Archer fired a volley then another one.

The bullets glanced off about six inches from Zack’s body and fell on the floor or ricocheted and bounced on the walls.

Archer emptied the magazine then reloaded. “Are you okay?”

The first fear assuaged by the fact that he was still intact, Zack nodded but couldn’t really talk. He’d never been used for target practice before and still experienced a bit of a shock.

 
“Isn’t that awesome?" Dylan visibly had a grand time. “I almost wet my pants the first time I did this." He snatched two weapons, joined Zack at the blast wall and threw him a laser gun, keeping the phase-gun.

Zack caught the weapon and checked his watch. “How long does this thing last, you said?”

“About four hours, more or less,” Archer confirmed through the earmuffs.

“I’ll keep an eye on the clock." This fun game could become lethal if the armor suddenly shut down.

Archer aimed the Uzi at the two men. “Now let’s try the laser weapon, the phase-gun and the Uzi.”

“Together?" It seemed a bit much to Zack.

“Just like in the field, dude." Obviously Dylan had done this before and enjoyed this new sport. “This time, we also shoot at each other.”

“Sweet Jesus!"

The following all out shooting made Zack wish he had better ear protection. When the armor proved effective against all these weapons, however, Zack figured Archer deserved his fortune and had good reason to be proud of his achievements.

*****

A few days later, Zack in green camouflage took his position, with Carrick and four hundred ORION soldiers, in the thick forest surrounding the McDougall mansion. Zack had come full circle and finally found himself in a combat situation, almost as if his ordeal had only been a nightmare. But he wasn’t the enthusiastic youth who’d taken arms against the Anaz-voohri years ago. Such trials changed a man.

So far, the stealth operation had gone according to plan. Tour busses, vans and other civilian vehicles had surreptitiously dropped off troops in various strategic positions over the past twenty four hours. Now they lay in wait.

Deployed outside the electric fence, far enough from the gate to avoid being seen or detected by the guard dogs, Zack couldn’t see the mansion itself. He used the satellite locator to give him an image from the sky. Through his binoculars he also surveyed the gate. Shortly after sunset, cars started arriving at a good pace. The satellite showed two dozen cars on the front lawn and more crossed the gate in a steady flow.

“Our informant was right." Carrick said, watching the gate through his binoculars. “It does look like a meeting is taking place tonight.”

Zack adjusted the night vision glasses on his helmet. “There might be as many as a hundred hybrids in there. Do we have enough men?" Zack remembered the fierce super-soldiers defending the cave where he’d been so severely injured. Two of them had butchered an entire unit. “Do we know what kind of weapons they have?”

“It doesn’t matter." Carrick said curtly. “We are trained, and we have the element of surprise. We even have missile launchers and emergency air cover on standby." He punched his epad. “How are you doing with that electric fence?”

The epad emitted background noise.
“Ready to disable it on your signal, Colonel.”

“Good job. Stand by." Carrick nodded to Zack. “Let’s wait until they are all here. We wouldn’t want to miss any of these mother-fuckers.”

Having met trained hybrids in combat before, Zack didn’t share Carrick’s optimism. “My sixth sense tells me this seems too easy. What if it’s a trap?”

“Do not confuse your sixth sense with cowardice, Zack." Carrick winked, as if to take the sting out of the insult. “Even if they are waiting for us, we still outnumber them four to one. What better odds can a soldier wish for?”

Still, Zack was glad he’d get to test the Lemnian armor in the field for the first time. He also felt relieved that young Dylan worked on another assignment. This raid had the potential to turn out ugly. “Tell me before you give the order, so I have time to suit up.”

Carrick snorted. “Aren’t you the fucking bride,
today.
How much time do you need to get all pretty in your high tech armor?”