Chimera Code (Jake Dillon Adventure Thriller Series) (23 page)

Dillon awoke with a start as the shrill sound of the alarm-clock
invaded his semi-consciousness. His eyes opened slowly and he could
just make out the stemmed glass of deep red liquid that he had enjoyed
so thoroughly the night before. Images of flames crossed his mind;
good food cooked on the open fire; good wine consumed in copious
quantities; humorous bantering between the small group. The flushed
cheeks of Franky...

He groaned with the pounding in both his temples, and as he
sat up, realised that Ezra was standing in the doorway to his bedroom
staring at him.

“Get yourself up and then go and wake Tatiana. We meet outside
in five minutes.”
“Have you got any painkillers?”
“I have,” said Ezra cheerfully. “Come on, move yourself. It’s
almost dawn, and we have much to do and little time to do it in. We
have unwelcome visitors coming.”
The sun was just rising, a weak grey pre-dawn light gently
caressing the horizon. Tatiana followed Dillon, whinging about the
lack of sleep they’d had and touching the healing wound to her
shoulder. “Ezra’s painkillers are working, but not quick enough.”
“They’ve cleared my head. That shoulder of yours still
throbbing?”
Tatiana gave a wan smile. “I’ll survive, I’m sure.”
She moved across the veranda, linked arms with her uncle. “Do
you remember when we used to go sailing on days like these?”
“I do, and I wish those days were with us again.” Ezra’s voice
was filled with fond memories, tainted with sadness of a world gone
terribly wrong...
“Me too,” smiled Tatiana. “You make me feel like I’m back there
again.”
“If only.” said Ezra softly, glancing over at Dillon who was
leaning over against the balustrade and smoking a cigarette. “Hey,
Dillon, come on. I have something to show you.”
“Does that something involve a bed?”
“No. But it does have something to do with the Assassins.”
Ezra led them down the steps of the white-walled villa: a clever
disguise, an effective cover for what it concealed. He led themthrough
the olive grove, and then out the other side over arid scrubland and a
random stand of olive trees until they came to a rusting iron hatchway
concealed by small rocks and dirt, and fallen leaves and branches.
“This facility has always had a ‘Top Secret - Highly Classified’
status. And as you both know, the villa and olive groves are merely
a cover for what lurks below.” Ezra said standing directly over the
rusting iron cover. “While I am impressed with your skills in running
me to ground, you really, really have no idea what you are dealing
with... You really do not understand what it is you are
fucking
with
here...”
He spun the rusted iron wheel, which moved with surprising
ease. There was a hiss as the iron hatch was released. Ezra heaved up
the hatch to reveal a shallow flight of steps made of stainless steel.
Ezra removed a key from a chain around his neck; he went down the
steps to a control panel; inserted the key into a slot and turned it.
Returning to the others, saying, “Step back.”
Dillon and Tatiana did as they were instructed.
There came a distant sound of a mechanical mechanism grinding
into life, followed by a hiss as the ground opened up and the steps
turned into a riveted stainless steel ramp, flanked by metallic walls and
leading down to another part of the facility.
From the darkness below the lights running down the middle of
the ramp-way shone like diamonds. There came the sound of diesel
generators and the gentle humming of the air-conditioning units.
“Come.” Ezra stepped forward and onto the ramp. Dillon and
Tatiana followed him down the ramp into the darkness of Ezra’s
secret world - below the hot ground of Santorini.
Dillon stood eyes gazing at the array of hi-tech weaponry stored
in rows of metal racks down both sides of the spacious armoury.
“Hell, Ezra.” he said.” I didn’t realise you had such...
resources
.”
Ezra smiled wanly.
“If only it were enough.”
“Enough? Ezra, you’ve got enough weaponry here to start a
small war.”
“That may be. But they are sending many Assassins this time.”
“How many, exactly?”
Ezra’s dark-eyed stare met Dillon’s. “The blue-prints... They
want them bad, Dillon.”
“How many?”
“At least twenty,” said Ezra softly. And these will have been
selected from their elite forces...

Dillon stood in awe at the entrance of the huge chamber hewn
from the rock. Metal racks full with an impressive array of weapons;
positioned in neat rows down the length of the chamber, were a
contrast to the rough harshness of the environment.

Computer monitors flickered across the wall at the far end of
the cavernous room. Ezra walked straight towards them, saying as
he walked. “These monitors control a number of concealed antipersonnel weapons that are concealed throughout and around the
entire perimeter of the olive groves and villa complex.” Ezra gestured
at the wall.

“Mines, missiles and machine guns?”
Said Dillon softly. “Bloody hell,
Ezra. You must have some mighty powerful government masters to
have such remarkably unlimited resources?”

“Let me take you through to the kit-room. As you will soon see,
we also have all of the latest lightweight body-armour, so fit yourselves
out with anything you want and then we’ll talk battle tactics.”

“Ezra, fighting a battle is one thing. But with the weaponry
you’ve got down here, you could start a full-scale fucking
war
, old
son.” Dillon said, as he inspected a bullet-proof body vest.

Once Dillon and Tatiana had chosen their combat kit, Ezra
explained quickly as they walked through a network of tunnels,
gesticulating passionately with his hands, his eyes wide and focused;
they came to many turns in the underground passageways - sometimes
they branched off in two or three directions. Ezra would take a tunnel
- seemingly at random - his boots treading the dust as he led the
couple through the correct sequence of the…

“Maze?” asked Dillon.
“It didn’t start out like that, but over the years it has become so.
We have been busy boys down here under the rock.” He grinned a
broad toothy grin.
“So I see,” said Dillon, brushing his way through giant cobwebs.
“Of course you want answers? You sounded surprised when I
mentioned anti-personnel weapons. Courtesy of MI6 and the SAS,
who smoothed the way with the weapons? You see, we act as guardians
for this large cache of killing power. Why? I hear you ask. Well, when a
special operations team need a little extra hardware, they call in and we
respond by ensuring they get what they want. The reason for this is -
personal protection of VIPs. The British Government owns a number
of exploration drilling rigs at a variety of locations around this part
of the world. Together with this, and they would deny it if asked, they
also own the rights to many ocean sites with oil, mineral and precious
metals beneath the waves throughout the Mediterranean and Aegean.
But it doesn’t stop there, the British Government also owns millions
of acres of forestland in Poland, Russia, and Finland, and thousands
more miles of desert throughout Africa and in a variety of locations
scattered across the Middle-East... secretly, and under the guise of
corporate business concerns. The British Government also has major
holdings in many major corporations around the globe, including;
drilling and mining, computer hardware and software development,
military computer research and development, banking, you name
it... It’s beyond my comprehension, and it is financed entirely from
billions of pounds siphoned out of the Treasury and away from the
public domain.” He said with acidity. “They have a finger in every pie;
if you can make money out of it, the British Government does. Gold,
precious stones, oil, gas, construction, computers. Behind closed
doors, they are one of the wealthiest organisations in the world,
even though they tell a gullible general public that the country has an
enormous monetary deficit. And this is probably best for everyone,
but…”
“And there is always a but,” said Dillon easily.
“We talked about Professor Kirill last night: He is, was, the
bright star of British computer supremacy. But now he has joined
forces with a rather unsavoury character by the name of Ramus -
together they plan to use Chimera to destroy economies and even
whole continents.”
“I knew that the Chimera Programme was rumoured to be
incredibly powerful, but…”
“But nothing. Tell him, Tatiana.”
Tatiana, who had gone quite pale, said. “The Chimera
Programme
is
the most powerful virus based programme in the world
- without doubt. It is so advanced, that not even the most innovative
anti-virus software can combat against it. Chimera is self-teaching,
so it is infinitely adaptable and works at lightening speeds to change
its appearance - and can even make itself invisible. But the biggest
breakthrough is that it does not work to ordinary scripts. Kirill wrote
the original script, and then discovered the breakthrough purely
by accident. The clever part is that you tell Chimera what it has to
achieve and then push send. That’s it - from that moment on Chimera
is thinking for itself. But more than that, it can enter even the most
heavily guarded military computer mainframe, take the information it
was asked to obtain and leave - without a trace of it ever having been
there.”
“Without a trace.”
“To within a certain percentage rate. It’s not perfect - but it has
already started to prove itself as brilliantly astounding.”
They came to the end of a corridor, blanked by an alloy door.
Ezra placed his hand, palm down, on the biometric reader panel - the
door slid back to reveal a large chamber, full of thirty or more men
and woman all working at computer monitors, The bunker was hewn
from the rock, the walls rough and course, grained and grooved by the
tools used to create this underground network.
“Impressive isn’t it! We can monitor everything from down here,
and we only have about fifteen minutes.” Ezra stood gazing at one
of the monitors for a moment, and then said, “Arm the perimeter
machine guns and also the stingers.”
“Are they on the island yet?” Dillon’s eyes were bright, alert.
“Soon, but they have split into three attack groups.”
Dillon frowned. “And?”
Ezra rubbed his chin stubble. “The good news is that they have
come by sea, as we expected. Had they come by air, they know that we
would have shot them out of the sky with our stinger missiles, long
before they were anywhere close to the island.”
“And the bad news?”
“There are a few more of them than we first thought.”
“How many?”
“At least fifty. And they are armed with the latest laser guided
hardware.”
“What sort?”
“Tank busters...”
“What the hell are we going to use against that sort of hardware?”
“Faith, Dillon. Faith. And of course an armoury full of state of
the art weapons.”
Dillon met Tatiana’s gaze, both simultaneously picked-up the
underlying nervousness in Ezra’s booming voice. Dillon pacedaround
the room, his senses starting to stir in the dark recesses of his mind -
adrenalin beginning to rise - anticipation of what was to come, turning
to excitement...

Sunlight rolled over the ocean, white tendrils, dancing over the
blue water. It glanced over the cliff top and through the olive groves.
Occasionally a dog barked in the distance.

The men and women of Ezra’s secret facility waited.
They waited for the Assassins.
Dillon stood to one side of the doorway, a Heckler and Koch

MP5 machine carbine in his hands. He held the lethal weapon loosely
by his side, for it had been a long time since he had used such a heavy
piece of hardware, always relying on his loyal Glock 9mm automatic.
Dillon didn’t like machine guns; they were noisy, bone shaking
instruments of mass destruction, to his mind.

Ezra came out with a jug of iced tea, handing Tatiana a glass full
of the refreshing amber liquid, and then Dillon the same. They drank,
Tatiana keeping her eyes fixed on the small portable monitor screen
that she held in the palm of her hand. It showed the cliff top beyond
the olive groves, with the sparkling blue vista of the ocean beyond,
and at a touch, the image on the screen changed to those relayed by
one of the concealed perimeter cameras.

Tatiana sported standard issue desert combats and boots. She
held her sub-machine gun like a baby cradled in her arms; Dillon’s
gaze swept the horizon for any unwelcome movement, and after a few
moments they both went back inside the secret facility. As they walked
into the monitor room, Dillon was immediately aware of the tense air
of anticipation and the nervous realisation that their secure and secret
world was about to be smashed.

Dillon was sitting on the edge of one of the workstations,
watching the monitor intently. The scene was surreal. An ordinary
looking white-washed villa, olive groves, an abundance of colourful
flora, their hues radiant in the sunshine... and in contrast, an array of
hi-tech laser guided weaponry, all concealed and controlled remotely
from this underground facility.

“From what I saw in Scotland, they’ll come,” he said, passing
her a cigarette.
She looked at the open packet. “I’m supposed to be giving up.
But these are stressful times.” She took a cigarette, and Dillon offered
her a light from his slender gold lighter.
Tatiana came over and sat down beside Dillon. “How’s your
shoulder?”
“Okay, thanks.” She smiled, but the smile was merely masking
her nervousness. “It still feels like someone is sticking a red hot poker
into my shoulder every time I move my arm. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been hit by a train. But no problem, Ezra gave me
some more painkillers. I just hope they kick in soon, as I have a
feeling that I’m going to need a clear head and my wits about me soon
enough...”
They waited in virtual silence.
“Do you think we can fight them from down here with the
remote weapons?”
“Honestly. No chance. These Assassins are the elite, they will
almost certainly be conversant with the majority of weapons that we
have here - and how to disarm them.”
Dillon scratched an imaginary itch on his chin while wishing the
headache, that had once again made its presence known, gone. “I hate
these blasted waiting games; I work much better on my own.”
“We know,” said Tatiana, glancing round. “But unfortunately we
have little choice.”
Dillon stood up and paced around the room, hands firmly placed
behind his back. “Whatever happened to the world I knew?”
“Global computer terrorism. That’s what happened.” Franky
said.
Spiros appeared from one of the passageways off of the main
chamber; he carried a small circular optical disc in one hand, and was
smiling broadly. He gave the disc to Ezra.
“There it is, Boss.”
“Is this all the data?”
“Everything - it would surely make Kirill weep.”
Dillon’s head snapped around at the mention of his name, his
eyes sharp. “Kirill? I shot that bastard in Cornwall - he should be
dead.”
“He most certainly is not dead, Dillon. Ferran & Cardini has
been keeping an eye on professor Kirill for many months, on behalf
of HM Government. He is believed to be inextricably involved with
the systematic destruction of Scorpion, and he’s not working alone.
As you know, his facility is located in one of the most inhospitable
areas of the Scottish Highlands - but as always with Kirill, he has
shrouded himself in such a cloak of secrecy, that we are having trouble
establishing how he is able to implement his game plan and still evade
every attempt to monitor him. He is very good - he is extremely wellconnected at the highest level, this bastard is almost untouchable.
And since the Scorpion network and mainframe has been completely
destroyed, it is pretty hard to check out certain facts now. To be honest
with you - this situation can only get worse from here on in.”
Dillon made a kind of snorting noise, and then said. “Kirill,” he
spoke softly. “He is definitely a major player in everything that’s taking
place; I can feel it in my gut. He was ready to kill me back in Cornwall.
Which means that he has obviously become more adventurous - more
reckless...”
“Your report came in to Vince Sharp, who went straight to the
partners with it. But it was too late getting to Scorpion HQ.” Said
Tatiana.
Dillon nodded; his headache was now making him feel
particularly tetchy.
Tatiana was sitting in front of one of the monitors.
“So what do you know about Kirill’s facility in Scotland?” There
was a glint in Dillon’s eye; Kirill brought back the bad memory of the
assignment in the South of England, and now he knew that one day -
one day soon, he would meet the man again. Dillon would have a little
chat with him, and then he would
kill
him...
Ezra frowned. “Every step of the Chimera Programme
development process, has taken place at Kirill’s facility in Scotland.
Some of the basic scripts were leaked recently over the Net and there
have been some pretty pissed-off people... especially since we also
have the blue-prints containing a vital missing script for this extremely
dangerous programme.” Ezra laughed without humour.
“After we’ve shown these Assassin fellows some good old
fashioned Greek hospitality, we could do with popping over to say
hello to professor Kirill and his team of hackers. I’m sure they would
be very interesting to talk to. But considering what they’re planning
for our world economy, that place must be locked down so tight that
even a mouse wouldn’t get inside.”
Tatiana spun round in her seat, “Ezra, you’d better look at this.”
Ezra went to Tatiana’s monitor, resting his large hands on the
back of her swivel chair and stared at the flickering screen in front
of her. “Shit,” hissed Ezra, “something is wrong - everything looks
normal.” His gaze flicked from Tatiana’s monitor to the screen next
to her - but there was nothing, nothing visible, no black clad Assassins
clambering up from the cliff top or through the olive groves. Nothing.
“So what’s happening, Ezra?” Tatiana’s voice was a little shaky.
“Normal is not good.” Ezra pulled a small black device from
his pocket, which had a series of green and blue LED lights flashing.
He looked up at Dillon. “This device has only one function, to let
me know when there is a security perimeter breach... Those bastards
have out-smarted our early-warning surveillance systems... But how
did they do it? No matter now, we don’t have the luxury of time
to deliberate this problem. If the worst happens, we have one last
surprise up our sleeve, and you don’t want to be within a mile of this
place when it goes off.”
“What is it, Ezra?” Tatiana asked.
“An Electro Magnetic Impulse weapon. It’s located directly
under this chamber. When the device is detonated it will destroy
everything organic within the immediate area and all electronic
equipment within a one mile radius will be deactivated and the
hardrives erased. However, once the device is armed this facility will
go into a state of hibernation, every electrical appliance and all of the
computer hardware that is here, is fitted with special shielding against
the impulse blast.
“How do we leave?” Dillon said softly.
Ezra pointed to an alloy panel at the far end of the chamber. “If
the situation looks hopeless, I want everyone to try and make their
way back to this chamber.” His expression was sombre, his voice low.
“It will be the only way of getting away in time, and the
countdown is set for 60 seconds,” he walked over to the panel,
“behind this panel is another tunnel that leads straight down to the
base of the cliffs. There are purpose built sleighs on the other side,
which run on a mono-rail all the way to the bottom. The hidden exit
will automatically open once I’ve pushed the countdown button.” He
looked around the room for a brief moment, and then said. ‘’It’s time
to meet our enemy. May luck be with us all.”
He turned and went out through the tunnel, followed by Dillon,
Tatiana, Franky and Spiros and a number of security guards; who
were all wearing body armour and headsets within their helmets. The
heavy metal door slid closed behind them. Moving to the mouth of
the tunnel they remained deep within the shadows, Dillon pulled free
his Glock and brought up the Heckler...
His mouth was suddenly dry, he felt the adrenalin pumping
through his heart, and a slow burning sensation deep within his
subconscious.
Bullets screamed, a short burst smashing into the rock an inch
above Dillon’s head, showering him in dust and debris. There was the
whack and splat
of a bullet entering flesh and a security guard, who was
standing at the front of the line, smoking and resting his gun across
his arm, had his head obliterated in a violent spray of blood, brains
and bone. The entire side of his head and face disintegrated and now
covered the rough-hewn wall of the tunnel entrance. His legs buckled
from under him and he dropped, twitching and blood trailing crimson
to the ground.
“Stay down!” Screamed Dillon as rapid automatic gunfire
erupted all around - and he suddenly
knew
, remembered how the
Assassin’s had avoided his own sophisticated security system and early
warning mechanisms back at his home in Scotland... and the bastards
had done exactly the same here - they’d bypassed the security network
and were now - inside the facility perimeter.
Why use such brash and head-on tactics, when stealth and
cunning could have so easily carried their game off more smoothly.
And Dillon knew that this noisy full frontal attack was a diversion.
To draw their attention. After all, who
wouldn’t
hear the distinctive
battle cry of a Heckler & Koch MP5 SMG firing at full throttle?
Dillon hit the dirt hard, pulling Tatiana down with him.
On the opposite side of the tunnel, Ezra crouched low, keeping
his back tight to the rough wall as machine-gun bursts roared,
screamed and echoed into the tunnel from outside. Dillon glanced
left and was momentarily stunned by what he saw. A squad of ten or
so Assassins were pinning them down in the tunnel entrance while
another two were advancing towards them carrying, what appeared to
be missile launchers. They moved with amazing agility and speed, their
movements effortless as they sped across the olive grove - machine
guns continued to thunder.
“Aim for their heads, it’s the only area without armour!”
Bellowed Ezra, and, keeping low, crept his way nearer to the mouth
of the tunnel. Seeing Ezra, Dillon launched himself forward and as he
landed, rolled and fired his Heckler on fully automatic to give covering
fire. An Assassin was picked up and slammed backwards off of its
feet and onto the arid earth with a series of holes where its face had
once been. Dillon looked pensive as he took in the scene, no more
than a few seconds had passed, before he was firing another short
burst at four Assassins to his left, he rolled and, another rapid burst to
his right, and three more went down into the dust - their heads almost
severed from the vicious fusillade of bullets.
Ezra had managed to work his way to the far side of the olive
trees, he saw Dillon rolling and heard the Heckler firing at the
Assassins, who were dropping like stones all around him. And then
all was quiet.
There was a
click
, followed by a concussive
boom
. One of the
two Assassins carrying the missile launcher was picked up and tossed
spinning into the air and slammed into the trunk of a tree. All that
remained of the dead Assassin was its badly burnt body minus both
legs and what was left of the upper arms, the grenade blast so fierce,
that it had literally ripped the Assassin open as easily as shelling a
pea from its pod. Smoke spiralled up into the air, and Dillon threw
another grenade for good measure, taking out the second Assassin in
the blink of an eye.
Dillon could hear the sound of death all around him.
And then chaos prevailed. Assassins came from all directions,
black-clad, hooded and lethal; some carried small cross-bow, while
others held mini-Uzi sub-machine guns firing on semi-automatic.
Dillon and the security guards were responding with short bursts
of return fire and grenades. Seconds later, detonations sounded and
Dillon grabbed Tatiana’s arm and led the way towards, what they had
first thought, was simply Ezra’s villa - Ezra’s home.
Ezra was knelt down on one knee, the Heckler MP5 held firmly to
his shoulder, firing short bursts at the Assassins nearest to him; talking
rapidly into his headset. He was giving orders to his people inside
the locked-down chamber who were monitoring the scene outside
through the network of covert cameras and who were also operating
fixed position machine guns to little or no effect due to the Assassin’s
stealth and turn of speed... His new instructions were implemented
immediately. Commands were input and soon the computers took
control of the machine guns, which started firing short bursts of tenmillimetre hollow-point rounds. Locked onto their targets; the bullets
were like scythes, dropping Assassins like flies as each round slammed
into their heads.
Those Assassins left standing diverted their attention towards
Dillon and Tatiana and chips of stone and render were chewed from
the wall behind them.
“Hell, where did they come from,” he shouted above the noise
of chaos and destruction, dropping low to the ground and changing
the magazine in the Heckler. The Assassins charged - and were cut
down by Ezra’s Heckler, felling them like trees, their bodies thrown
limp like rag dolls.
They hit the ground hard.
Three rolled and sprang back onto their feet. The advanced
lightweight body armour that they were wearing, saving them from
certain death.
Dillon wiped the sweat from his eyes, wiped his hands on
his desert combats and fired another short burst of rounds at the
remaining Assassins who were firing from the edge of the olive trees.
Dillon blinked.
Something dark and ominous crept like a black fog across his
soul; superimposed across the beauty before him was a dark shroud
like nothing he had ever seen before and his senses flowed, time
slowed, everything became 3-Dimentional High-Definition.
“We have to get back, back inside the villa...” he hissed.
Tatiana nodded, gun clasped tight.
They moved forward using a low retaining wall as cover. Bullets
were coming thick and fast at them, and the Assassins still standing,
were firing on full automatic, the smell of cordite all around them.
“What is it?”
“There were seven Assassins, and now there are only four of
those bastards firing at us. So where are the other three?”
Dillon’s comms. earpiece crackled and Ezra was talking to him,
“Dillon, place your hands over your ears and keep them there.”
Dillon relayed Ezra’s instruction to Tatiana. But, she’d also heard
her uncle over her own comm-link, and both hands were already held
tightly over her ears.
A moment later the first of five stun grenades went off, followed
by the next and the next... Everything immediately became quiet. Only
the breeze running through the trees could be heard.