Red to Fade (11 page)

Luckily for Connor employee's working at the Bedstay hotel haven't seen the news and they don't know that Connor is a suspect in multiple shootings.

Connor says, “I killed those guys in self-defence.”

Gabrielle says, “You have to turn yourself in. Where are you?”

Connor says, “I'm not telling you where I am. After I've seen what's on the R-1 file you can take me in, but take me in to the CSB-R1 base.”

Gabrielle is confused and says, “R-1 file, what are you talking about?”

Connor says, “That's what all of this is about. Joel and his crew are planning an attack on the CSB-R1 base to download top-secret information. How they plan to attack the CSB-R1 base is detailed on a disk I have.”

Gabrielle says, “The CSB-R1 base is supposed to be like a fortress; with the most advanced state-of-the-art weaponry.”

Connor says, “I want to meet up with you sometime tomorrow and show you what's on this disk; after that you can bring me in, but bring me in to the CSB-R1 base.”

Gabrielle says, “I don't know if I can bring you to the CSB-R1 base; I've heard that only CSB-R1 soldiers are allowed in there. Also, I don't know where the base is, and I've heard that you need Clandarian government clearance to enter.”

Connor says, “I need to show someone from the CSB-R1 base what's on this disk. I can't just walk up to someone in there and tell them about what's going to happen, they'll think I'm crazy. I need to show them hard evidence.”

Gabrielle says, “I tell you what, you show me what's on this disk and if you're telling the truth and your story checks out, I'll see what I can do to help you find the CSB-R1 base. Will we meet up now?”

Connor says, “No, not now, I want to get some rest before facing the possibility of getting chased and gunned down again. There's a chance they might be tracking this file; they tried to kill me because I downloaded it. I have the file hidden for now.”

Gabrielle says, “How did you know about this file?”

Connor says, “It's a long story; I'll explain everything when we meet up.”

Gabrielle says, “Where and when do you want to meet up?”

Connor says, “I want to meet up in an open area where I can use a computer to see what's on this disk, and in a place where I can see a distant view of people coming towards me; say, tomorrow at nine o'clock in the morning. I'm not downloading the R-1 file from a computer in your station; R1 cops will arrest me and hand me over to Joel and then Joel will either blow my head off or lock me up and throw away the key.”

Gabrielle says, “I know a place where we can meet up: Sunred Motors on 14 Dawn Rock Avenue, 9am sharp.”

Sunred Motors is a car dealership company.

“In front of the Sunred Motors building they have a huge car park, and at the front side of the building they have huge glass windows; if you're inside Sunred Motors you can see people coming into the car park from a mile away. They also have computers there that you can use to see what's on this disk.”

Connor says, “OK, that's fine. I'll meet you there, but Gabrielle, come alone.”

Gabrielle says, “I will.”

She hangs up the phone and speaks to her partner in front of her desk and says, “The guy who I was speaking with on the phone just now was Connor Harper. He's the FBI agent who was reported on the news of going on a shooting rampage in LA. I've known him for years. He wants me to meet up with him tomorrow at 9am at Sunred Motors. He said he killed those agents in self-defence, and that Joel Davis and other agents are trying to kill him.”

Gabrielle's partner is called Gragon. Gragon is a Clandarian morphian. Gragon is huge; he's six foot tall and has the physique of a bodybuilder. When Gragon speaks English his accent sounds like an Austrian accent. Gragon also saw the Big Rock for the very first time when he moved there from Red 2 three weeks ago. Gragon transferred from a Red 2 law enforcement precinct to the Red 1 law enforcement 27
^th
precinct because his fiancée got a job in the Big Rock. Gragon was ordered by his superior officer in the Red 1 precinct to become partners with Gabrielle. Gabrielle and Gragon are like tourists in the First Dome, and day by day they are gradually getting to know their way around.

Gragon says, “Do you believe him?”

Gabrielle replies, “I don't know, but I want you to be there when I meet up with him tomorrow, and another thing, don't tell anyone about this.”

Gragon says, “Sure, no problem.”

In Connor's room in the Bedstay hotel, Connor checks the planet communicator box to see if his number is written anywhere. The number for Connor's planet communicator is not written on the box. Connor grabs the box, exits his room, exits the hotel and fires the planet communicator box into the bin. The reason why Connor checked the box for his number and put the box in the bin is because he doesn't want anybody to know the number for his planet communicator, and also he doesn't want anybody to know that he has one.

Connor walks back into the hotel and up to his room, and sets a wake-up alarm call on his planet communicator for 8am. Connor takes off his shoes, jacket and gun holster and decides to go to bed to sleep.

Many hours later Connor's alarm goes off. Connor wakes up, gets dressed and places all of his belongings in the inside pockets of his jacket.

The brightness on Mars is about half the brightness on Earth. The temperature of the Glass Tomb is a bit cooler than yesterday. Connor walks out of his room and exits the hotel. He walks across the road to the library. The library is very quiet; there are not many readers around. Connor goes to the toilets, enters a cubicle and climbs on the toilet that he climbed on before. Connor raises a panel of acoustic drop-ceiling and grabs the hard drive that's lying on top of another panel.

Connor places the hard drive in his trouser pocket and lowers the acoustic drop-ceiling panel he lifted, putting it back in place. Connor climbs down and exits the toilets. He walks over to the receptionist of the library and asks for a phone number for a taxi. The receptionist gives him a number.

Connor stores the number on his planet communicator, thanks the receptionist and exits the library. Outside of the library Connor dials the number for the taxi on his planet communicator and tells the taxi service where he is going, which is Sunred Motors on 14 Dawn Rock Avenue. The taxi service tells Connor that the taxi will arrive in ten minutes.

*

Meanwhile at the Hilton Hotel in the First Dome, Joel and his crew are currently staying in some of the rooms. Some agents working for Joel are driving around Red 1 to see if they can find Connor. Joel received the news from an agent that an RBM was found at Arlin Harbour. Joel knows that Connor is alive, but he doesn't know where he is. Joel has men on Earth and Mars looking for Connor.

Joel waits with other agents in a room he rented. The room Joel rented is set up like a big FBI office and is a place where the agents can carry out their work. Joel is waiting to hear news of Connor, and also for the RBMs to arrive. Joel's planet communicator rings. Joel answers.

Michael Gruber speaks and says, “Joel, it's Michael Gruber here. I've fixed the file tracker program. Connor is on the move; he's in the Big Rock. Tell Johnson to run the file tracker application from his laptop.”

Johnson is another smart IT guy who works for Joel, and who is currently in the hotel with Joel. Joel says, “Good work, Mick.”

Joel hangs up the planet communicator and says, “Johnson, turn on your laptop and load the file tracker application.”

Johnson turns on his state-of-the-art advanced Balaxian Stradix laptop. From Mars, he is able to connect to the file tracker server program that's installed in a damaged server in the FBI LA branch building, using a wireless connection from the Stradix laptop. The Stradix laptop allows you to connect to different networks on different planets. Johnson loads the file tracker application. In a search box he types in
R-1
. A Google-style map loads, complete with a red dot that's moving. The red dot is Connor carrying the hard drive with the R-1 file. Johnson says, “Connor is on the move and is heading down RedDome Road.”

Joel and his men are wearing Clandarian earpiece mics.

Joel says to Edmund, “Edmund, I want you to stay here and continue to hack into the CSB-R1 base to disable their communication systems.”

Edmund Peters is another IT guy who works for Joel. Edmund is using hacking software called Clojan Beast. Clojan Beast is a hacking program created by the CIA and can be used to hack into and disrupt Balaxian communication systems to prevent inhabitants of Balaxia communicate with each other.

Clojan Beast was designed by the CIA to weaken Clandarian technology in the event of natives of Clandar going to war with earthlings. Edmund is working hard; there is a lot of Balaxian software encryption to decrypt in order to hack into the CSB-R1 communication systems and disable them. Joel wants the systems to be disabled because when he and his crew go to attack the CSB-R1 base he doesn't want anyone in the base calling for backup, and also if the CSB-R1 base finds out about Space Drill he doesn't want anyone in there to inform anyone else about it.

Edmund says, “Yes, sir.”

Joel shouts, “OK, men, we're going to RedDome Road. Let's move!”

Joel and his men exit the hotel and get inside the R1LEV vehicles to go in pursuit of Connor. The R1LEV is a Red 1 law enforcement vehicle; it's a lot like an RBM except that the R1LEV doesn't have a remote control mini gun installed in the back. The color of the R1LEV is dark blue. The R1LEV has dark-tinted, armoured windows. National Security Advisor Richard Crosby asked Lord Grecco to make arrangements for an R1 law enforcement precinct to give Joel and his crew weapons and R1LEVs. A Red 1 precinct has supplied them with morphian-manufactured GD-7 machine guns and many other morphian assault weapons. The GD-7 machine gun looks like the German H&K G36 assault rifle.

*

Connor in his taxi finally arrives at the car park in front of Sunred Motors. The car park is huge; it's bigger than a Walmart car park. Connor pays the driver and exits the taxi. The taxi driver drives off back to his taxi rank. There are not many cars in the car park. The cars parked there are owned by employees who work for Sunred Motors.

In the front side of Sunred Motors there are huge windows. Behind the windows are cars on display. Connor walks to the entrance and walks inside the Sunred Motors building. He walks around, browsing and looking at cars. Connor thinks that these cars are pretty cool. The cars that Connor is looking at are Clandarian-manufactured cars.

An employee walks over to Connor and says, “Sir, do you need any information about any of the cars?”

Connor says, “No, not right now.”

The employee says, “If you need any information on any of the cars there are booklets on the receptionist's desk, and feel free to ask me any questions about any of the cars.”

Connor says, “Thanks.”

*

Gabrielle and Gragon have arrived at Sunred Motors in a R1LEV. Gragon parks the R1LEV on the right-hand side of the Sunred Motors building beside three other cars. Gabrielle and Gragon are both dressed in blue; they're wearing blue armour marked
R1LE
. R1LE stands for Red 1 Law Enforcement. Gragon and Gabrielle are both wearing blue armour, blue trousers and black boots. Blue armour, blue trousers and black boots are the dress code for all Red 1 Law Enforcement officers. Gragon and Gabrielle each have a 15-shooter handgun in a holster attached to a gun belt that is worn around their waists. There are also handgun magazine clips in magazine clip holsters that are also a part of the gun belt.

Gabrielle says, “OK, I'm going in to meet him now, I'll be back soon.”

Gragon says, “Affirmative.”

Gabrielle exits the R1LEV and walks over to the entrance of the Sunred Motors building. As Gabrielle enters the Sunred Motors building, Connor sees Gabrielle and Gabrielle sees Connor; they walk towards each other.

Connor says, “Gabrielle, it's good to see you again.”

Gabrielle says, “Let's take a look at what's on this disk, shall we?”

Connor says, “Absolutely.”

Connor and Gabrielle both walk over to the reception area. The reception area is behind all of the cars that are on display. At the reception area, Gabrielle pulls out her badge and says, “Red 1 Law Enforcement, we need to use your computer.”

The female human receptionist says, “Sure, no problem.”

Gabrielle enters the reception area and Connor follows.

Gabrielle says to Connor, “Give me the disk.”

Connor gives her the disk. Gabrielle puts the disk inside the computer. From the computer screen a digital window for the disk has loaded. The R-1 file is in the digital window. Gabrielle clicks on the R-1 file. A digital grey bar appears. A second digital bar within the grey bar is green and is slowly becoming bigger; this means that the file is loading. When the green bar reaches a certain point the file will be loaded.

After a few minutes, Gabrielle says, “Jesus, this is taking too long.”

Some of Joel's crew have landed at the Sunred Motors car park in R1LEV vehicles. Joel has instructed some of them to drive in some R1LEVs, go to the back of the Sunred Motors building and park there because he wants them to make sure that Connor doesn't escape through the back exit. Gabrielle and Connor haven't noticed that some of Joel's crew have parked around the back of Sunred Motors.

Inside Gragon's R1LEV, Gragon sees an attack formation of R1LEVs forming at the front and back of the Sunred Motors building from a distance. Joel's crew, who are at the back of Sunred Motors, don't notice Gragon at all. Joel and the rest of his crew park their R1LEVs in the car park in front of Sunred Motors. Gabrielle is looking at the computer screen waiting for the R-1 file to load and Connor sees the R1LEVs being parked out front; he thinks that they're with Gabrielle.

Connor says to Gabrielle, “Jesus Christ, I trusted you. I thought you'd come alone.”

Gabrielle says, confused, “What?”

Gabrielle sees the R1LEVs parked outside. She says, “They're not with me.”

Connor looks at the R1LEVs again and sees Joel and his crew winding down their windows and pulling out their machine guns, getting ready to fire. Some of Joel's agents get out of the R1LEVs and lean on top of the engine covers with their machine guns. Some agents pop out of the sunroofs and lean on top of the roofs of some of the R1LEVs with their machine guns.

Joel says, “Everyone at the back of the building, don't fire until I give the order.” He then says, “Everyone at the front, open fire!”

Connor shouts, “
Get down!
”

As Connor ducks down for cover he grabs Gabrielle and the receptionist and makes both of them duck down for cover. Joel and all of his agents open fire with their machine guns. As Joel's crew opens fire, the shots from their guns smash the huge windows of the Sunred Motors building, tear into two Sunred Motors employees and all of the display cars, smash the glass windows and lights of all of the display cars, blow out the tyres of all of the display cars, create explosions of polyester as they hit the seats of the cars and create small detonations of remains as they hit the walls on the inside of the Sunred Motors building. There are bullet holes on every part of the display cars.

The remaining Sunred Motors employees are ducking for cover as the machine guns are being fired. The firing eventually stops. Joel and his agents start to reload their guns. Gragon hears that the gunfire has stopped and sees that Joel and his crew are reloading their weapons. Gragon makes his move; he starts the R1LEV and accelerates very fast. He's heading straight for the right-hand wall of the Sunred Motors building.

Gragon breaks through the wall with the R1LEV. The bumper of the R1LEV turns the wall of the Sunred Motors building into tiny pieces. Pieces of concrete and debris go flying everywhere as the R1LEV breaks through the wall.

Gragon stops the R1LEV behind the display cars and opens the passenger door of the R1LEV and shouts, “
Gabrielle!
”

Since the start of the shooting Gabrielle has been lying on top of the receptionist protecting her from getting hit by firearm projectiles. Gabrielle tells the receptionist that everything is going to be all right. Gragon shouts Gabrielle again.

Gabrielle pops her head out from behind the receptionist's desk and sees Gragon. Gabrielle shouts with excitement, “
Gragon!
”

Gragon shouts, “
Get in!
”

Joel and his crew have reloaded their weapons and they start to open fire again.

Gabrielle gets into the passenger side of the R1LEV. She says to Gragon, “Wait for Connor.”

Gabrielle shouts out of the R1LEV, “
Connor, come on. Let's get out of here!
” Connor takes the disk out of the computer and puts it in his inside pocket. Connor tells the receptionist to keep staying down. He tries to calm the receptionist down by telling her that everyone will stop firing when he leaves the place. He runs to the right back passenger door of the R1LEV, opens it and gets inside, closing the door behind him. Gabrielle sees that Connor is inside the R1LEV.

Gabrielle shouts, “
Go!
”

Gragon presses down hard on the accelerator, wanting to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Gragon, driving fast inside the Sunred Motors building while being shot at by Joel and his crew, breaks through the left-hand wall of the building. As the R1LEV smashes through the left-hand wall of the Sunred Motors building, pieces of building material and rubble go soaring in the air.

Gragon makes one hard right and then another, going around the corner to the back of the Sunred Motors building.

Joel shouts, “Everyone at the back of the building open fire on that R1LEV!” All of Joel's agents who are at the back of the Sunred Motors building open fire. Some of the ammunition fired from their machine guns create small discharges of broken material as they hit the back of the Sunred Motors building and some of the ammo fired from their guns hit and bounce off the R1LEV. Each weapon round that hits the R1LEV creates a small flash. Gragon drives fast through the Sunred Motors car park. There is a road on the right-hand side. Gragon drives through a steel barrier, then drives over a footpath and onto a road and turns left. The road is a part of an intersection. Luckily there is no busy traffic on the road that Gragon is driving on and the traffic lights are green. Gragon takes a right and drives onto an eight-lane superhighway with busy traffic that's a part of the intersection. The width of each lane of the superhighway that Gragon is driving on is huge. You could have two cars driving beside each other in a single lane.

Joel shouts, “Follow that R1LEV!”

Joel and his crew get into their R1LEVs and drive fast, following Gragon's trail. Gragon is driving fast on the superhighway, swerving past cars and switching from lane to lane to go as fast as he can. There are a lot of cars and other types of vehicles but Gragon's a great driver; he's not hitting any of them.