Valkeryn 2: The Dark Lands (5 page)

Harper sighed as his guard stayed at attention for each passing car. He guessed that Briggs had been in the lead car – her ferocious demeanor would make anyone obey or get the hell out of the way.
That woman’s a nasty piece of work
, he thought. The SUVs accelerated in unison, almost as if they had been chained together. Bringing up the rear was some sort of massive eighteen-wheeler painted a non-reflective matt black. He could only wonder at what it contained.

Harper squinted at the screen. Crack drivers, as well as marksman, frogmen, hand-to-hand combat specialists, demolition experts. He shook his head.
Just as well they knew nothing about particle physics, or he might as well go home right now
, he thought glumly.

He checked his watch: they’d be here, in his office, in around ten minutes. He knew that Briggs planned to enter the anomaly gate with several dozen fully armed elite soldiers.  The breach in time and space needed to be closed, and finding the boy, and the acceleration initiator, was the priority, but by now they had no idea where he was in the world, and the world was a big one. He snorted. Well, of course it was – it was ours – just at some distant point in the future.

Harper ground his teeth, to try and settle the niggling feeling he was getting in the back ones that had once held metallic fillings. He didn’t know exactly how much time they had before a tipping point was reached, but based on how quickly the magnetic cores were degrading, he guessed it could only be a few more months, maybe weeks. But then what? He pulled at his lower lip. What happened if the distortion hole grew to a point where it started to pull large matter, all matter, into some sort of gravitational vortex? Would it be satisfied with just the building, the city, the continent, or would it continue growing until it scoured clean the surface of their world?

Harper straightened. Briggs had threatened to take him along for the ride this time. His colleague, Takeda, had accompanied the Green Berets on their first foray, and never made it back. He knew they had all died brutally The thought of it made him sick. Might as well shoot me here, he thought.

He looked at the monitor again and saw the cars slide to a halt. The hulking soldiers stepped from the vehicles. Briggs strode up and down their line, with her hands on her hips, the soldiers coming to attention. They looked professional, formidable, and deadly.

He turned to the door. Nothing to fear, but fear itself.
What crap
, he thought miserably, and went down to meet them.

*

Colonel Marion Briggs stood on the ramp at the back of the enormous truck that she had ordered parked across the front of Fermilab’s main building. It was eighty feet long and
thirty-five tons… and that was before they added another ten tons of armor plating. The monstrous vehicle was a mobile command centre, with enough ionized shielding to protect its oc
cupants and their sensitive equipment against everything from a significant EMP wave to uranium tipped RPG strikes.

The ‘beast’, as it was affectionately known, would watch and listen to everything that went on – in this world or wherever Briggs decided to take her team.

Satisfied that everything was in order, she jumped down from the ramp so she could pace along the line of men and women assembled before her. All over six feet tall, they had been chosen for their aggression, skills, and unique ability to survive hostile terrain, and act as a fully autonomous unit on foreign soil. Where they were going was about as foreign as it got.

The Delta Force team’s brutal and scarred faces, though young, reflected a life of hard trauma and pain, testimony to theatres of conflict all across the globe – though none of the missions would ever be found in any publicly available dossier.

Each of them wore a black, non-reflective uniform, interwoven with a Kevlar thread at the joints to give maximum rotational ability. Larger areas, like the chest, thighs and biceps were covered in ceramic plating, with armadillo strips down over torso – the composites virtually weightless but harder than steel. She nodded her approval.

The team stood stock-still, HK416 assault rifles strapped at their chest, with accessories for night vision, sound suppressors and grenade launchers. The carbine was a variant, replacing the M4, but with a shorter barrel for close-quarters combat. The A5 carbine had a gas piston kick to ramp up projectile velocity – it was short, light and deadly. Each carried a variety of knives at their hip, mostly K-Bar with night blackened blades and a tanto edge – like sloping chisels – guaranteed not to break or dull against rock,
steel or bone.

She stopped in front of one huge man and looked him up and down. He stared straight ahead, his blue eyes unwavering.

‘All right there, Teacher?’

‘Delta is always right, ma’am.’ Big Jim Teacher, or Teach to his comrades, stood a little straighter. He was one of her leading Specs Ops agents, an excellent strategist, as well as an unnaturally-gifted combat specialist.

‘Good.’ She put her hands on her hips, feeling her own blades nestling there. She nodded; they were ready. She turned and squinted at sound of an approaching Fermilab guard – slightly overweight and graying at the temples, he jogged towards them, puffing hard and holding up a hand. By his side, trotted an enormous German Shepherd dog.

The animal’s eyes were like gun barrels, such was the intensity of its gaze… and focused directly on Briggs. The animal’s eyes unnerved her. They were way too intelligent. The guard yelled to her, but she ignored him and turned back to her team, running a hand up and across her head, feeling the military crew-cut bristles spiking at her palm. Her mouse-blond hair, normally pulled back into a severe bun, was no more – in the field pragmatism was required, not aesthetics.

Briggs circled her hand in the air, and the team turned as one toward the large doors.

‘Hold up, you can’t park there.’ The guard increased his pace, and tilted his head down to speak a few words to the dog, who sprinted forward. It immediately began to nose in amongst the soldiers, sniffing each in turn. When it came to Briggs she swatted it away. To her surprise, the dog stood on its hind legs, now taller than the colonel, and stared down into her face, the eerie cold eyes, seeming to burn right through her.

‘Piss off.’ She went to take a step, but the huge dog moved to place itself between her and the front of the building.

The guard chuckled. ‘Don’t mind…’

Briggs balled her fists. ‘I warned Harper to keep these freaks outta my face.’ She backhanded the animal across the nose – hard – the ceramic knuckles on her gloves ensuring it was a painful blow. She turned away again, and started giving a few more instructions to her team.

The guard’s good humor fell away in an instant. ‘Hey, cut that out.’ He strode towards Briggs, and made the mistake of reaching out a hand to place it on her shoulder, and tug.

Briggs reacted immediately. Like lightening, she spun, grabbed his wrist and twisted, making the man cry out in shock and pain. She looked at his name-tag.

‘Listen, Mr. Loeman…’

Things happened quickly. The dog snarled and leapt for the Colonel’s hand, but before the animal could grab her forearm, one of the soldiers had materialized beside her. The man moved unnaturally fast and silently for someone who was easily six and a half feet tall. He landed a cracking blow into the side of the dog’s head that sent it sprawling. The blow would have left a man unconscious, especially as it was delivered with the heavily-plated gloves.

But, a German Shepherd’s skull is thicker than a human’s and covered in a layer of fur, so the animal came back fast, this time its eyes round with fury and long teeth bared like white daggers. It leapt to attack. The soldier barely moved, just holding up one arm, the forearm horizontal to protect his neck and face, and also present an armored barrier for the dog to latch on to. The animal did as expected; it bit down hard on his arm. In a single smooth motion, the soldier pulled his longest blade from its sheath, and brought it up between the animal’s ribs.

There was a bloodcurdling scream of pain, and then the animal fell away from his arm. He leant to wipe the blade on the dog’s coat.

The guard came at the enormous Special Forces soldier, but Briggs shouted to him: ‘Halt, or you’ll be next.’

Her voice froze him. The enormous soldier with the blond flat-top crewcut stood motionless, holding the dark blade at his side, but kept an unwavering gaze on the guard. There was a slight satisfied smile on his lips.

The guard crumpled, going to his knees beside his dead animal. He cradled its head. ‘Morgana!’ He buried his head in its fur.

There was silence for a few seconds, before an eerie sound rose from a white dome shaped building in the distance, a cross between a howl and something almost intelligible.

Briggs frowned and looked around, her eyes settling on the Fermilab building. She snorted. Albert Harper was sprinting towards them. He skidded to a stop, and held both hands up to his head. ‘What the hell happened here?’

Colonel Briggs spoke evenly. ‘We were attacked, and we defended ourselves.’ Without looking at him, she motioned to the guard. ‘This man is lucky he didn’t wind up as dead as his animal. I hold you personally responsible, Harper. I warned you that these animals would be tolerated as long as they did not to get in our way.’

Harper stuttered in disbelief for a second. ‘H-He was just doing his job. You know all visitors need to be cleared, and the Guardians…’ he pointed angrily to the dead animal, ‘… provide a non-intrusive and non-electronic way of doing that for us.’ He stepped in close to her. ‘Jesus, Briggs, each of these animals is worth half a million bucks, and owned by your military. You’re going to have to answer to…’

‘Well Harper, you can report that the military just field tested one of their animals… ’ She grinned, but there was no warmth or humor in the show of teeth, ‘… and you can put in your report that your dogs need more work.’

She turned to the big man, who had sheathed his knife and stood like a colossal black clad statue behind her. ‘That’ll be all Samson, get back in line.’

He nodded and immediately spun to return in amongst the line of soldiers.

Harper spluttered some more, but she cut him off.

‘
Listen Doc, it attacked us, and now it’s dead. Get over it.’ She went to turn away and then paused. ‘And what the hell is that freakin noise?’ She motioned with her head towards the white building.

Harper stood, his face red and his jaws working behind his cheeks, as though he was trying to chew and then swallow down the woman’s unbelievable arrogance. After a few seconds, he exhaled and spoke slowly. ‘That… is the animal testing facility, along with the dog compound. What you’re hearing is probably a collective display of loss… and anger.’

‘How do they know from over there?’ Briggs turned her head, slowly scanning the open ground surrounding the enormous facility. She shrugged. ‘No, I don’t care. Now, do you want to rescue the young man you lost or don’t you?’

Harper turned away from her, and knelt beside the guard who was cradling the dead animal. He put his hand on the man’s shoulder. ‘It’s Jim isn’t it?’ The man nodded. ‘I’m sorry; she was a good animal. I’ll send someone out to help you.’

Harper went to stand but seemed to have another thought. He knelt back down and put his hand on the guard’s shoulder. ‘Don’t take her back to the compound. I don’t want the other Guardians to see the wound.’ He lowered his voice. ‘They’ll know.’

He looked up at Harper, tears clearly blurring his eyes. After a second or two, he nodded and then Harper got to his feet. His face became stony as he turned back to the colonel.

‘Your man will need an anti-mutagen shot. The animal fluids can affect human DNA – something we’re still working on. This way.’ Harper strode off with his shoulders hunched.

Briggs stood for a second longer and shook her head at the scientist’s back. She then looked up at the sky – angry, iron-colored clouds moved in a ring over the facility.

‘Stupid damn scientists.’ She shook her head, exhaling long and loud for a few seconds, before turning back to her team. ‘Let’s move it.’ She began to trot towards the massive doors of the facility, followed by the double line of her team.

Teacher looked down at the man and the dead animal. He shook his head and fell back into line to follow the group in.

Chapter 5

She’d be famous

This is sooo cool.’

Becky Matthews sat next to Edward Lin on the hillside, hunkered down against the wind that constantly swirled around their shoulders and threw sticks and leaves into their hair. Both had field glasses to their eyes, and Becky twirled the focus wheel at their centre as she moved her lenses a little to the left. Most days after school, sometimes on weekends, and even during the night when the urge took one of them, they would creep up into the hills overlooking the Fermilab facility to peer down into their grounds.

She half peeked at the young man beside her. It was strange the way things had turned out; look at her now, just sitting on a freezing hill in the evening with Edward Lin, an uber science-nerd, and about as far from being her type of friend as anyone could be. She in turn had been, was, one of the most popular girls at Nap High. Arn had brought them together, and he didn’t even realize it. Not only brought them together but made them co-conspirators and potential lawbreakers.

Both Edward and Becky had been sworn to silence by the government – national interest you understand, they had said to her and her parents. But they couldn’t control her – and when she wanted something bad enough, she usually go it.

They had watched when the soldiers had arrived, and then as the giant black-clad man had killed the dog. She had cried out in her anger at the brutal action, but thankfully she was too far away to be heard. She knew if she tried to tell anyone, the only ones likely to be arrested would be her and Edward for spying. It was clear now that the military, or whoever they were, were controlling the facility.

‘We should go.’ Edward said and shifted beside her. She ignored him and pulled the thick down jacket a little tighter to her shoulders, and moved the glasses away from her eyes to look up at the sky. It was purple-black, and looked corrupt, and as if it was some sort of stained bathwater swirling down into a drain.