The World After (20 page)

The underground machine allowed them to travel across the open field unnoticed as they were a good thirty feet below the surface. With no rocks in this area, they were actually able to cover the twenty mile distance in less than two hours.

It was midafternoon when they eventually had to stop because the scanner inside showed the first pipes and underground cables of Itanagar blocking their way ahead. In order to get out, they had to take a measured risk and smoothly emerged on the surface just left of an abandoned old school. Nine of them walked out and hid in the decaying building while Jinhun pulled their mole back underground and walked up to the surface to rejoin his companions.

In the small gym on ground level, they sat in a circle and started discussing their next move. Grossmayer insisted that he and Jinhun should accompany Fukuzawa to the safe house not too far from where they were. They hoped that from there they would be able to execute their plan later that night.

MacGeady objected to that idea. “The short amount of time spent outside to run for cover here was enough for me to know we're expected. The amount of helicopters I saw in the air scattered over the city definitely means that the Agency and the local army are both searching for us. It will be a major risk to sit in one place and wait for the right time to come. This safe house of yours,” he looked straight at Grossmayer, “it will definitely be searched at least once by the end of the day. You have no idea what resources the Agency has.”

They stood in silence for a bit and, after that, started arguing until Jinhun shouted over everyone. He had come up with the plan they eventually decided was the best one, that's why four hours later, eight of them dragged themselves out of the sewer waters covered in shit and all other kinds of unspeakable gruesome things.

“It should be dark outside,” Fukuzawa said. “We best head up. According to Masterson's plan, we should be right under the next building to our safe house.”

“No torchlights. I'll go first to check if the passage is safe,” Jinhun said. Without waiting for anyone to say anything, he left the backpack he was carrying and, with his favorite Glock at the ready, climbed up the metal steps to the round lid above their heads.

They saw him lifting it carefully to peek out. Obviously satisfied, he soon opened it and his legs disappeared through the hole. From the bottom, the other seven men were able to see only darkness, but a minute later a torch light appeared. Its wave signaled to them that it was safe.

They made their way up into the laundry room of a quiet civilian block of apartments, and as none of them had a brain implant, they had to use force to break the only window as quietly as possible and one by one to drag themselves through it.

Their group emerged on a quiet side street. Across, they were able to see the dark shape of an old cloth factory. Its top floors were transformed into cheap apartments for workers but their safe house was in the uninhabited basement, which was used mainly as a storage area. At the back end of the building, two spacious rooms were turned into living quarters for the night guards that once worked there, and years ago, Fukuzawa had obtained the place under a false name. He kept the old surveillance equipment and improved it with some high-tech gadgets of his own, and since in twenty-four years, nobody had ever knocked on the door while members of the Yuyuan were staying there, he was confident that it was safe.

They quickly made their way across the street and, using the small staircase leading down, entered the building through what was the only manually controlled door. Their organization had made sure to keep this entrance open for them, and the simple lock easily opened with the key hanging on Fukuzawa's neck.

The eight of them quickly disappeared inside. Only after the door behind them shut did a man with night-vision goggles that had lain for almost an hour in a dark corner at the other end of the street get up and rush to his left.

Inside the building, the men tried to cause as little noise as possible, although by that hour the hard working inhabitants were either already in bed or too drunk to hear anything, but leaving nothing to chance, they advanced carefully down the dark corridor.

The only drawback of this place, something that Jinhun didn't like at all, was that this was the only way in and out and, if they were to be found that would be it, they were trapped.

Jinhun ordered two of the men to stay back near the stairs leading to the ground floor, while the rest of them unlocked the safe house and, only after closing the door, switched on the lights. The bigger of the two rooms was almost entirely covered by desks bending under the weight of heavy computers and other equipment. Fukuzawa quickly got busy switching on all the hidden surveillance cameras he had out on the street and inside the building.

While he was doing that, Jinhun and Grossmayer took the few wobbly old chairs from the other room, where there were three beds, a dining table and an old fridge. Just as they walked back to the computer room, Fukuzawa said with a steady voice, “Guys, we have a problem.”

They rushed to him and over his shoulders looked at the screen in front of them. It was showing the street outside, the empty until just five minutes ago narrow alley was now full of military jeeps and indigo-colored cars. The screen to the right of this one showed that the two men Jinhun left behind to guard lay dead in puddles of their own blood.

“Well, we all knew it would come to this. Let's face it like real men,” Grossmayer said and hugged the shoulders of his two companions, while the three other men with them knelt down to pray.

“I can't believe we were so close,” Fukuzawa said as the door to the safe house burst open. Many soldiers and agents rushed in with weapons aimed at the six members of the Yuyuan.

The gathering at the door split in two to make room for a familiar face.

“Well, I think there will be a slight change of plan,” Shimi Levy said, while planting his old, but still solid iron fist in Jinhun's belly.

He looked at the three other men that were still on their knees and, with a lack of any emotions, ordered, “Kill them!”

A minute later, three men in their prime lay dead on the floor while Jinhun, Fukuzawa and Grossmayer were tied to the chairs. Two agents stood next to each of them with weapons pointing at their chests.

Shimi Levy stepped to one side, allowing the computer specialists of his agency to work their magic. Half an hour later, they all shook heads negatively. The older of them walked to his director and reported, “I'm sorry, sir, but something is not right.”

“What do you mean?” Shimi Levy's eyes narrowed.

“We found plenty of codes and files supposedly activating this virus but they're not right. I think they're what we call logical bombs in programming. They didn't do anything and only distract whoever is trying to fight the virus, until the real codes and commands are put in and the infection starts.”

“So basically you're telling me that they can't activate the virus with what you found here.”

“At least not with what we found. He might have all the codes in his head.” The man pointed at Fukuzawa. “But the information on these computers is useless.”

Shimi Levy looked at the small Japanese man pretty much his age and said, “Give me the codes before it starts to hurt.”

Silence was the response. Without giving any other warning, Shimi Levy raised his gun and shot Hans Grossmayer between the eyes. The chair under him broke and his body hit the ground while both Jinhun Sun and Akio Fukuzawa shouted in anger.

“I warned you.” Shimi Levy's face was right in front of Fukuzawa's, their noses nearly touching. “Give me the codes, old man. You lost, you'll never activate the virus now, and the little trip up the mountain your beloved princess and Taylor Swansea are taking will be of no use.”

A look of despair ran across Fukuzawa's face. “Oh, yeah, I know all about it. By the time I was chopping the third finger off her child, the lady you sent back to the caves told it all and more. Oh, by the way everyone's dead. There's nobody left. Once I finish with you two and the two climbing the mountain, the Yuyuan will be history.”

“There will always be somebody to resist you and the ones you're working for.” Jinhun spat at him.

Shimi Levy slowly wiped his cheek and, with a smile on his face, asked for Jinhun to be moved to the other room and tied to the bed.

“I suggest you tell me the codes and I promise you quick deaths. If you keep your mouth shut you'll witness some horrible things happening to your friend.”

Fukuzawa remained stony faced and, after his chair was placed so he had a clear view of the bunk bed to which Jinhun was tied, the torture started. Two agents took off their jackets and rolled up their sleeves before, with the help of very sharp scalpels, started opening heavily bleeding cuts all over Jinhun's body.

“None of these are deadly. He will die from the loss of blood and in excruciating pain once his organs start shutting down if you don't start talking. I can end his agony with one quick slice across his throat. Come on, give me the codes; accept defeat.”

Fukuzawa remained silent and the torture continued. For half an hour, the two agents cut flesh and broke all the fingers and toes of the helpless Jinhun. By the time they chopped off his penis, the poor man had fallen unconscious from the pain. Fukuzawa's eyes were filled with tears, but he remained silent as a mouse.

“Wake him up.” Shimi Levy was starting to get angry. “Come on, you stubborn old man, save your friend from all this if you care about him.”

Jinhun was injected with a powerful cocktail of adrenalin and steroids that saw him opening his eyes again, despite the fact that his brain wanted to shut down. The adrenalin made his heart pump even more blood out of the numerous cuts, but the director of the ATU was no stranger to torture. He gave a little nod and, using pliers, the two agents started taking out Jinhun's teeth one by one. This pain was hitting the poor man's brain straight away. He screamed like a baby in between the vicious pulls.

His mouth filled with blood, he spat a few times at his torturers and, in a very weak voice, said, “It's worth it, Akio, it's worth it. I'll die happy.”

Shimi Levy had seen enough. He walked to the bed. Using a bent knife, he opened the skin covering the ribs. He hooked the loose piece of skin and pulled hard. Akio Fukuzawa witnessed as one of his closest friends and companions for the past twenty years was literally skinned alive. Jinhun's scream was inhuman, but at least this was the last that came from him. Despite a second shot of adrenalin and steroids, the mutilated body of the Chinese man never came to life again.

“There is a bed for you too, old man. Better start talking or we won't be so gentle with you.” Shimi Levy waved in his face the bloodied sharp end of the bent knife.

“Sir, can I talk to you for a second?” The computer specialist from earlier was just about able to stop himself vomiting as he looked into the room.

His head quickly disappeared in the other room and the director followed him. The man not used to witnessing such horrific scenes. He took some time to recover his speech ability and then said, “I worked out a few possible computer simulations to see how this virus works and I might have something for you here.”

“Show me.”

“You see, if we assume that he has prepared the codes to give their commands to activate the virus from somewhere else automatically, it's a complicated procedure that requires the newest possible equipment. But it's a possibility there should be another way to stop it forever. You see, from what you told me about these two other guys going up the mountain to broadcast a signal using our satellites only minutes before they are destroyed, I came to believe that they must carry with them some kind of software with all the codes and passwords for access.”

“So, you're saying that they have the codes in them?”

“Very likely. Not the ones that will wake up the virus, but the ones that will give the person that has them control over its actions and ability to target which parts of the software to attack in which order. Knowing what a legend in our field Akio Fukuzawa is, I'm sure he put in an override code. If it's on a device, it will be on the one that is going up the mountain.”

“You better be sure about that, boy.”

“I …”

“Your life is at stake.” Shimi Levy nearly said good job to his agent but he was too busy, his mind was racing.

He walked back to the other room and, leaning over Fukuzawa's ear, whispered, “Even if you somehow activate the virus automatically, I'll still win. I'm going for a trip up the mountain. I bet the overriding code that kills the virus is travelling with them.”

The horror in Fukuzawa's eyes showed him that he was right. With no time to waste, he simply cut open the man's stomach and let him bleed to death slowly and agonizingly, like a pig in a slaughter house. When Shimi Levy walked out, he left a room of mutilated bodies. He was too busy to notice that on the dead faces of Grossmayer, Fukuzawa and even Jinhun there was a faint smile. The last thing they had done in life was to laugh at their enemy and now they were free.

Out on the street, Shimi Levy jumped in his car and ordered the driver to take him back to the Agency's headquarters in the city. On the way there, he dialed a number and, without much formality, said, “I need a chopper to fly me and one more passenger to the communication mast, ASAP. Make sure everything's ready, I'm on my way.”

* * *

“Give me the laptop. You lost.” Shimi Levy said.

Taylor bravely stepped in front of Carolina to shield her from the four barrels aimed at them. She pushed him to one side, her eyes fixed on her father.

“Listen to him, sweetheart. Give him what he wants and we'll walk free. I'm protected by my government and you too” Ademar Gamejro said.

“Listen to your daddy, little princess. There's no way you're going to broadcast the signal anyway. Your friends back in Itanagar are a bit dead. Especially Jinhun, he screamed like a baby by the time I finished pulling his skin from him while he was still alive. You lost, now give me the laptop.”