The Secret Bunker Trilogy: Part One: Darkness Falls (19 page)

It’s about where the sound of the closing door came from.
When I reach it I can see that it has just been opened, because the light
on the entry pad is still illuminated. Whoever it is doesn’t seem to be aware that I’m following them.
Either that or they’re trying to shake me off.
I step into the room, this is unlike anything that I’ve seen so far. It’s the usual hi-tech, but it seems to be some kind of transportation
area.

There are platforms on which boxed equipment is placed.
But this area doesn’t seem to be
just
for transporting equipment.
It looks like it’s used for transporting
humans
too. At the far end of the room, somebody is standing on one the smaller
platforms.
They are surrounded by a pulsating orange light, as if some process
has already begun.
They have their back to me, I can’t see if it is Dr Pierce.
I run towards the area, shouting to get this person’s attention.
I can see that whatever this device is, it is operated in the same way
that everything else is here - by a hand pad.
The hand pad is activated, whoever is standing in front of me has just
started this process.
The orange, shimmering light surrounds the person inside and their
image is diffused.

I can’t tell what this machine - this contraption - is doing, but it seems
to be harmless, the person inside it
wanted
to do this, they are not in
pain or anxious about this in any way. It’s like they have done this before.
I can see that they’re about to turn around - they must have heard me
now, even though this thing makes an electronic sound, which seems
to be getting more shrill as the process continues. I slam my hand on the panel in the hope that it will stop whatever is
happening and I will be able to talk to whoever is in there.
In the instant that I touch the panel the person inside turns around.
Whatever I just did, it failed to stop the process.
In fact, it seemed to
complete
it.
The orange shimmering lights disappear along with the person inside
them.
But not so soon that I don’t get a definite glimpse of who was inside.
I suspected it from the minute I had walked into that room.
My sense of connection had been fully restored.

For the first time in seven years I feel ‘locked-in’ again, like the signal
that I’ve been searching for all this time has finally been reestablished. There is
absolutely
no doubt about it now.
Even through the illuminated orange shield, at the moment that they
turned to face me I knew
exactly
who that person was.
They were older, taller and their hair was different.
The person who’s just used this device is my twin, Nat.
It’s the sister who I’d seen dying in front of my own eyes seven years
earlier.

Chapter Six
Reunion

She’d been alarmed by the words ‘Come with me!’ but in the instant
that she heard them, she also recognised the voice that had delivered
them.
It was James. He guided her into a Green Zone room that had the appearance of a
meeting room.
There were no cameras in here, they could speak privately and
undetected.
They hugged as old friends do, but hung on a little tighter, because
they’d been through such terrible events together in their past.

‘What’s going on James?’ Amy asked.
She had so many questions that she needed to ask. ‘I signed up for this mission because I need the work, I was made
redundant last year,’ James began.
‘It’s not like anything I’ve done since you and I last served together,
but I didn’t think anything of it - until you arrived.’

‘Amy, I can’t explain what happened, but I don’t really recall going to
the bunker entrance to let you in, I just suddenly became aware that
you were there.’

‘It’s like I knew you were there all the time, I saw your face, but I didn’t
make the connection.’
Amy recognised this.
‘James, I’ve just seen my daughter Nat. I can’t explain it, it
had
to be
her … but she died, three years ago.’
She paused, the pain of those events surging back like a bullying
emotion which refused to stop picking on her.

‘I lost her though, we barely had time to speak. But it was the same for
me, I discovered her in the car when I went back to get the phone and
the laptop, I
saw
her but I didn’t make that emotional connection. It
just didn’t register.’

‘But the moment my eyes began to focus again after you’d let us into
the bunker, I recognised her immediately.’
‘She’s older and taller of course. But you don’t forget your own
daughter.’

These words hung in the air.
Neither of them could offer an explanation. As yet, they were unaware of the blue pulsating lights lying dormant
beneath their skin.
Resting for now, but ready to be activated again if required.
‘And my family are in here somewhere - Dan, Mike, Harriet and David I need to find them,’ she continued after a long silence.

‘Amy, your family is safe, but you won’t be able to see them I’m afraid,’
At least James was able to offer this reassurance. ‘All civilians who were caught inside the base have been placed in
statis, for security and safety reasons.’
‘They’re safe, but they’re asleep, just like everybody outside the
bunker.’
‘I don’t know who’s in there, but we can find out pretty easily. I’ll bet
that’s where your family is.’
Amy was relieved to hear this, but still anxious.

‘I’m concerned about Dan,’ she continued, ‘He’d got separated from
Mike when the bunker doors closed. He was calling out to me when
we got shut outside.’

‘What does he look like?’ James asked.
‘Same height as Nat, jeans, t-shirt, dark hair ...’ Amy began.
‘I think I’ve seen him,’ James interrupted.

‘There was a kid in the Control Room earlier, talking to Kate - suits
that description perfectly. Not sure why he was not in stasis like
everybody else though?’ Another question that hung in the air.
At that moment Amy’s eye was attracted by a faint pulse in James’
neck.

‘You okay James?’ she asked, I’m worried I might have hit you too hard
with my laptop.

‘Sorry about that by the way, I take it you knew what I was doing?’
‘Yeah, my head does!’ he replied.
‘I’m fine, why do you ask?’

‘You’ve got a weird vein in your neck, looks like you’re under extreme
pressure!’
She looked more closely.
‘That’s no vein,’ she continued, ‘See if you can see it in the glass, it’s
like a dim light under your skin.’

James couldn’t see in in his reflection in the glass, but by pressing on
the skin in that area, he could definitely feel something below the
surface. ‘You too!’ he replied.
If she hadn’t mentioned it first, he would never have noticed. But there was a definite blue colouring beneath the skin on Amy’s
neck.
She could feel it too.
Sometimes the mind can make massive, sudden leaps, piecing together
random strands of information and cleverly fusing them together.

She remembered her earlier uneasiness about
apparently
having given
blood.
When she couldn’t even remember giving blood in recent years.
And the absence of a mark on her arm. She suddenly had a strong feeling that these matters were connected
in some way, but no idea
why
.
Their conversation was interrupted.
The announcement system throughout the bunker was summoning all
personnel to the Control Room.

The Second Genesis

It is 20:00.
An alert sounds throughout the bunker.
All personnel are to gather in the Control Room or the canteen,
depending on their role in these events.
In each meeting area, there is a large screen displaying a fixed image
and a logo derived from a design of Earth.
The same logo that is displayed on the uniforms of every person in
this bunker.
It has the words ‘The Global Confederation’ beneath it.

The bunker staff gather in the designated areas, an air of expectation
crackling like an electric current through the building.
What happens next will define the mission in precise detail.
The holding image fades out, and a man appears on the screen.
It is Doctor Pierce.
The chatter in the room dies to a hush.
The same logo and wording is displayed on the plain background
behind Doctor Pierce.
He draws breath and begins to speak.

‘My name is Doctor Harold Pierce, I have met
all
of you already but
due to the highly confidential nature of this mission,
none
of you will
remember those meetings,’ he begins.

‘Firstly, let me start by reassuring you that your loved ones are all
completely safe and secure.’
Nobody utters a word, but you can feel the collective sigh of relief
across the room.

These people are voluntary participants in this mission, but their
contracts stipulated that they could designate family and friends for
dedicated support. Basically, The Global Confederation had made sure that they were all
in a safe and secure place at the time the darkness had begun to fall.
A letter here, a phone call there, the occasional email and it was easily
orchestrated.
Doctor Pierce continued to speak.

‘The terraforming process that is occurring outside is completely
benign to living creatures, though to enable it to operate effectively, it
is necessary to place everything into a state of stasis.’

‘This will last in total for a period of 14 days.’
‘During this time oxygen, water and nutrients will be delivered via
TerraLevel 1.’
‘This is the process that is connected with the darkness beyond the
bunker - that has just reached 100% of successful completion.’
Doctor Pierce has a riveted audience, hanging on to every word and
scrap of information that he is offering.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, while the whole world sleeps outside, you are
its guardian for the next fourteen days,’ he carries on.
‘This process will be fully automated, it is completely pre-defined.’

‘I must apologise for the initial delays in timing and restoration of
lighting, we are investigating the cause of these at present, but we
believe them to be routine issues.’

‘Your role in this is to keep watch over the planet. If your intervention
is required at any stage, you will receive further instructions, as-per
your training.’

He pauses, not for dramatic effect, but to gear up to what is possibly
the most worrying part of his speech.
‘And so to the reason for this mission,’ he begins.
‘The entire planet and atmosphere which sustains it has long been in
critical danger.’
‘In short, our planet can sustain life in its existing form for no more
than 10 years.’
‘The Global Confederation has made a radical intervention.’

‘What will occur over the next fourteen days are the essential
components required for the reanimation of our planet and its
atmosphere.’

‘The process will continue well beyond the fourteen days, but it will
remain undetectable by all available instrumentation.’
‘After the project, your memories will be erased of these events.’

‘The Global Confederation will maintain that recent catastrophes were
caused by a series of unexpected solar flares, and although there will
be some inevitable casualties, the safety and security of the planet will
be reassured for many millennia in the future …
if
we don’t continue
and repeat the mistakes of the past.’

‘As military personnel, you will understand the risks involved in a
mission of this scale and the overriding importance of achieving the
final objective.’

‘Your individual briefings will be delivered directly to your personal EPads, in the meantime The Global Confederation thanks you for your
service in the Genesis 2 project.’

With those final words his face disappears from the screen and the
holding image returned.
Genesis 2 was underway.

Encryption

Seated at James’ vacant workstation, he had quickly managed to
navigate the terminal.
This was a standard Consortium config, he had access of course via his
own work.

Although only on the periphery of this project, he was party to the
basics of the Genesis 2 operation. After all, it was he who had escorted many of these people to the
training centre and returned them to their civilian lives, all memories
erased. He had never met Pierce personally, but he received his instructions
from him via his E-Pad and, of course,
he
was the very reason he had
come to this place. To find out Pierce’s connection with the child.
He had basic clearance on the mainframe.

His presence here wouldn’t be flagged either, so long as he didn’t draw
attention to himself by trying to access unauthorised areas.
He could see too that since the mission briefing, the entire operation
had been stepped up a notch.
Security, monitoring and surveillance were now significantly
increased.
TerraLevel 2 was about to begin.
Although it was fully automated, it would be monitored around the
clock.
As Doctor Pierce had said, they were guardians of the entire planet,
like parents watching over children as they sleep.
He needed to locate Pierce and confront him about the girl.
He also wanted to know how this family were connected.
Years of work in this field gave him highly tuned senses for this type of
operation.

And he smelled a rat.
It was only because he was trying to locate the
source
of Doctor
Pierce’s broadcast that he stumbled upon the information that nobody
else had thought to check for. He was unable to locate the location of the broadcast but he was sure
that it was delivered live and that it was not delivered from within this
bunker. Certainly it wasn’t on the same mainframe that the Control Room
team were using.
It was while he was scanning the source that he noticed an unusual
thing.

Two video streams were being served simultaneously, the one that
they were all watching was shielding something else, which was
heavily encrypted. It was a Trojan Horse system used rarely in Consortium circles, but
highly undetectable - mainly because nobody ever looked for it.
Hiding in plain sight.
Somebody, within this bunker, had just received an encrypted
message from Doctor Pierce.
A message that they didn’t want anybody else to see.