2040 Revelations (40 page)

‘Morning,’ Goodwin said, yawning.

‘Drink, sir?’ a woman asked him, holding out a bottle of water.

‘I don’t suppose you have any coffee?’

‘Fraid not,’ she said, looking gloomy.

‘Then yes, I’d love one, thank you.’ He accepted the bottle, unscrewed the cap and took a long draught. Remaining standing, he noticed they now drove with the headlights on rather than using the head-up display system. The back of a supply truck glided along the road in front of them and further ahead he could make out the lead vehicles, their lights also ablaze.

‘No stealth system?’ he said to the driver.

‘No, sir, the Commander decided we were out of immediate danger and tired eyes function better under real lighting.

‘I can take over for you if you like,’ Goodwin said. ‘I have a commercial driver’s licence.’

‘Really?’ the man said, sounding surprised.

Goodwin laughed good-naturedly. ‘Yes; my first management post had me looking after a supply depot for the GMRC. I thought it a good idea to know the ins and outs of the job, so I signed up for lessons.’

‘It’s a nice offer, sir, but a CDL isn’t appropriate for something this large. We have to take a specialised training course; it’s quite a beast of a machine. Besides, we’re taking it in turns to drive and rest.’ He indicated the woman next to him.

Goodwin finished the rest of his bottle of water and took his leave of the two drivers to see if he could get back to sleep. Although deep sleep evaded him, he dozed in his chair for some time until someone touched his left shoulder.

‘Director, are you awake?’

He opened one eye to see a civilian looking at him. ‘I am now.’

‘Sorry, sir. I’m Dean Ward, a medic. I’ve been caring for Edna, the old woman we took onboard?’

‘Yes, I remember her,’ Goodwin said, stretching out his arms.

The man hesitated and Goodwin waited for him to continue.

‘I’m afraid she’s passed away. I thought I’d better inform you.’

Goodwin sighed;
far too many people are dying
, he thought as he stood up. This one was slightly less tragic, due to the person’s age, but it was still sad and would come as a blow to Rebecca and the other carers.

‘Lead on,’ Goodwin told the man and they moved down to the second level where two soldiers placed the corpse into a body bag.

Rebecca, already there, held another young woman who started sobbing as the bag was zipped up. Goodwin waited as Rebecca led her friend back downstairs before speaking to the soldiers. ‘Do you have anywhere to put her?’

‘We can temporarily place the body in a supply cupboard and then transfer it to a field ambulance when we reach our destination.’

‘A cupboard,’ he said with some chagrin, ‘it’s not very dignified. Isn’t there anything else more appropriate?’

‘Not really, sir, sorry.’

‘Do it then, but make sure it’s locked. I don’t want her falling out, people are freaked out enough as it is.’

‘Very good, sir, it’ll be secure.’

Goodwin left the soldiers to the grim task and decided to go back up front with the drivers for a change of scene. Some hours later, as they neared what should have been a bright new dawn, Hilt came back on the radio.

‘Sir, we have a military checkpoint up ahead. I think it’ll be best for the convoy to stop here while we go and speak to them.’

‘We?’ Goodwin said.

‘Yes, sir, I think you need to use your GMRC credentials again and see if you can get us a pass.’

‘Very well, Commander, let’s get on with it.’

The long procession of Darklight vehicles came to a stop half a mile away from the checkpoint. Hilt then picked Goodwin up in his lead command truck and took him to meet the Mexicans.

They pulled up twenty feet away and Goodwin and Hilt exited, then walked towards the soldiers who barred their path. Goodwin shrugged on a GMRC jacket, emblazoned front and back with the organisation’s logo, and zipped it up as they approached. ‘¿
Hola como estas
?’ Goodwin said in as pleasant a tone as he could muster.

The officer in command held out his hand for paperwork, his expression bland. ‘
Buenos días
.’

Goodwin handed him his GMRC ID card. Both he and Hilt gambled on the fact that their unofficial presence in Mexico hadn’t been disseminated throughout the country. The Mexican army had been notorious over the last decade for its inefficiency and lack of administration, due to large scale government cuts enforced by an almost totalitarian Mexican president.

Apparently satisfied with Goodwin’s credentials, the soldier then took some time looking at Hilt’s Darklight temporary GMRC ID card. Obviously unsure of letting through such a large armed force, he called over another officer to confer.

Goodwin’s nervousness grew as the two men looked at the card, intermittently glancing up to look at him, the commander and the distant stationary convoy. As they conversed in low tones Hilt produced some actual paperwork, which one of the officers examined in a manner Goodwin perceived as deep suspicion. Hilt shifted next to him and Goodwin glanced down and caught site of the commander’s hand unclipping his sidearm. Goodwin quickly looked away, adrenalin kicking in. One of the Mexicans looked up at the sudden movement and studied Goodwin, and then Hilt, before resuming his conversation with his colleague.

After more excruciating moments of tension crept by, the soldiers finally came to a decision on something and handed everything back.

‘
Todo parece estar en orden
,’ the officer said. ‘Everything is in order. You are free to go past.’

Relief washed over Goodwin as they thanked the men and returned to their transport.

Without delay, Hilt ordered the expedition forward and they were soon underway again, driving deeper into the unusually cold Chihuahuan Desert, the dust cloud’s ever-present cast causing temperatures to plummet.

Thankfully they weren’t presented with any further patrols or checkpoints to hinder their progress and, driving virtually non-stop, they had neared their destination by the end of the day. The Sierra Madre Oriental, a range of mountains, ran down the east side of Mexico spanning over a thousand kilometres north to south. The entrance to U.S.S.B. Sanctuary Professor Steiner had told them to use was located on the western face of Cerro El Potosí, at over twelve thousand feet the highest peak in the range.

Unable to see the mountain due to the lack of discernable light, Goodwin observed the peak via one of the displays in the transporter’s cab; its great bulk rearing up ever larger on the screen as they approached its western slope. Their ascent slowed to a crawl as the roads progressively narrowed, until one section became so constricted the convoy came to a dead stop.

Goodwin radioed ahead. ‘Are we stuck, Commander?’

‘We aren’t yet, but the transporters won’t be able to get any further,’ Hilt said. ‘We’ve scouted a mile ahead and even our smaller vehicles will not be able to negotiate the route.’

‘So what do we do?’ Goodwin asked him. ‘Go back and find another way up?’

‘This is the only road up, sir. No, we’re going to have to abandon the transport and move on foot.’

Goodwin frowned. ‘Really? How far is it?’

‘A few miles as the crow flies, six on the road. It should take us three hours max, allowing for the slowest of walkers.’

‘What about the convoy and all your kit?’

‘We can take the essentials with us. My troops are trained to carry large back packs so we should be fine in that regard. The convoy will have to be parked up further back. If we get inside, we can then order them to redeploy or potentially gain them access at another entrance. Alternatively, if we can’t get in, they can come back up to pick us up.’

‘Sounds like we don’t have any other options,’ Goodwin said.

‘Not really, sir, no.’

‘Then let’s do it, Commander.’

With Hilt acknowledging the order, it wasn’t long before twenty-five thousand civilians and the five thousand strong Darklight contingent had disembarked to begin their trek up the mountainside. Behind them the convoy’s lights picked out the terrain as it wound its way back down the steep incline.

Due to the effects of the impact winter and altitude, the temperature presented a problem to many of those now travelling on foot, although as ever Hilt had prepared for such a scenario. The convoy had included numerous supply trucks and he’d crammed some full of thick clothing. Some civilians already wore a couple of layers due to the cool temperatures experienced in some areas of Steadfast; many more now sported various military jackets, coats and body warmers. This extra protection soon proved its worth when it took Hilt and his teams a little longer to locate the entrance than predicted; but just as Goodwin’s patience was wearing thin, Hilt’s lieutenant returned after yet another scouting foray.

‘I’ve found it, sir. It’s half a click over that rise,’ he said, pointing behind him.

Hilt pulled his visual spectrum enhancement goggles down onto his eyes and then passed another pair to Goodwin. The crystal clear grey image clearly showed the area the lieutenant had indicated. It was a welcome feeling to actually see where they were as the darkness surrounding them was complete. There was no artificial urban glow anywhere near to aid them in this remote location.

Hilt motioned his recon team forward and Goodwin watched as they spread out, guns raised and locked into their shoulders as they moved as one, gliding effortlessly over the terrain. Negotiating the last few hundred metres, Hilt and Goodwin followed and they were soon looking down a shallow ravine at a substantial metal door. To one side a small building had been constructed. Cracks of light seeped out from within this tiny military installation; not U.S. military, however, but Mexican, according to the markings on the outside. This wasn’t a surprise to Goodwin as Professor Steiner had told him that the Mexican government had troops guarding the surface of the base alongside their U.S. counterparts.

Hilt scanned the area with another bit of kit that hung around his neck. ‘I count five X-rays, recon leader,’ Hilt said into his radio.

‘Copy that, Commander, I see them,’ came the response. ‘We are going dark, out.’

Goodwin watched as the elite Darklight team moved in on their unsuspecting targets. They reached the building and one man moved forward to place a charge on the door, then retreated a safe distance. A powerful explosion shattered the quiet and echoed through the mountains like a thunderclap as the Darklight soldiers swarmed into the outpost. A flurry of muffled gunshots rang out before silence fell, and then the operative came back on the radio.

‘Area secure. Zero casualties.’

‘Good work, Captain,’ Hilt said.

Goodwin was pleased; he hadn’t wanted any unnecessary deaths and had insisted on the use of non-lethal force to take control of the entrance, and the use of tranquilisers had obviously worked just as effectively as bullets would have done.

Now that the area had been made safe, with Hilt and Goodwin at their head, the mass of people moved into the ravine and towards the entrance of U.S.S.B. Sanctuary.

Chapter Twenty Three

Inside the building Darklight had just captured from the Mexican soldiers, Goodwin sat down at a computer terminal to access their system while Hilt’s team finished tying up the prone forms of the tranquilised men. Goodwin knew Sanctuary would be in isolation, as the lockdown protocols would have been actioned prior to the meteor’s strike. This would make their job slightly easier on the surface, since personnel should be minimal or non-existent once they breached the outer gates.

Taking out his phone, Goodwin uploaded the access programme Professor Steiner had provided onto the system. He activated a subroutine and sat back as various windows popped up and programming code executed numerous tasks. Multiple warning and
Access Denied
dialogue boxes came and went until finally a static window appeared with letters flashing in bold green,
Access Granted
. He was in.

Working quickly, Goodwin entered the gateway override protocols, which were virtually identical to those of U.S.S.B. Steadfast. He was surprised to see the surface access map of the base as it was much larger than he’d imagined, far exceeding Steadfast’s footprint. He studied the schematic, scanning through gate designations until he reached one on the outskirts of the diagram, designated
Kappa Sigma Two: Auxiliary Access
.

‘Commander?’ Goodwin said, calling over the Darklight officer. ‘Can one of your men find and verify any markings or signs found on the gate itself?’

‘Of course,’ Hilt said, getting on his radio.

It wasn’t long before a reply came back. ‘Kappa Sigma Two,’ could be heard over the com.

‘Did you get that?’ Hilt asked.

‘Yep,’ Goodwin said, already dialling into the gate’s command structure. Quickly finding the appropriate programme he initialised the opening sequence, being careful to disable any alert procedures built into the system. Getting up, he rejoined everyone else outside.

Large mechanisms shifted as bolts and locks disturbed from their sealed positions clunked, clanked and groaned.

In eerie silence the giant metal door slowly swung inwards to reveal a dark expanse against which the dim beams of personal torches proved useless. But this issue was resolved moments later when huge illumination rails flashed on in quick succession, the light cascading down a tunnel that was revealed in a brilliant glare.

Squinting at this new light source, Goodwin held back as the Darklight recon team took point, rifles once again at the ready as they moved inside. With Hilt accompanying him, Goodwin followed at a safe distance, having decided it best that everyone else remain out of sight at the entrance while he attempted to coerce the help of General Ellwood, as per the professor’s instructions.

Goodwin found the tunnel extended much further than he had expected, as he strode along its yawning length, and after about a mile they reached another small building, which fortunately lacked any human occupation.