2041 Sanctuary (Let There Be Light) (20 page)

‘With some time—’

‘I don’t have time!’ Joiner said, furious.

Myers was lost for words, unused to seeing his director so agitated.

Joiner hung his head, his plan for control slipping from his grasp. He’d thought his idea would work, but from what he’d just seen he should have concentrated his efforts elsewhere.

Myers came to stand by his side, the noise in the room subdued. ‘Sir, we can find another way. Perhaps I can be of use? Or we could reach out to another service; there are plenty of alternatives, surely? This was always a gamble—’

Joiner put up a hand to silence him. He needed to think and his brow furrowed in concentration. ‘I wanted this,’ he said, coming to a swift conclusion. ‘This was the best option, the only option.’ He made a decision. ‘Have you got it?’

Myers looked shocked. ‘After what you’ve just seen, I don’t think—’

Joiner gave him a look that could melt iron.

Myers stopped talking and waved an agent to him. The man presented him with a small grey case. Myers opened it, removed the single needle inside and attached its shiny length to a glass cylinder containing a green liquid. He then held it up for Joiner to see.

A marine gave a shout of warning and a shadow rose behind them. Weapons were raised and fingers moved to triggers.

‘Stick that thing in me,’ a gravel-laden voice said, ‘and it’ll be the last thing you do.’

Joiner and Myers turned. Before them, surrounded by a ring of guns pointing at his chest, battered and bruised, cut and bleeding, was the dishevelled figure of the man Joiner wanted to lead the search for Sarah Morgan. The man who could bring him what he craved.

Joiner’s expression changed, a glimmer of hope bringing with it a smirk of pleasure. ‘Ah, so there is someone in there after all.’

Colonel Samson took a step forward, burning madness in his eyes. ‘I’m still here,’ – he coughed up some blood and spat it on the floor – ‘but I’ll make you wish I wasn’t.’

Chapter Twenty Two

‘Hold him!’

Samson surged forward, knocking aside two marines before four more grappled him to the floor. Snarling like a rabid beast, he twisted, and a scream rang out as he bit into a man’s shoulder.

Joiner moved back as they fought to subdue the tortured beast he’d gone to so much trouble to acquire.

‘I said hold him!’ Myers moved in close, needle at the ready.

A huge marine grasped Samson round the neck, while many others pinned him to the floor. Samson’s insane eyes rolled like a maddened animal, teeth bared, skin red, tendons and veins fit to burst.

Myers bent down to rest the needle on Samson’s neck and he struggled again. Myers cursed. ‘Tighter!’

The marine’s biceps bunched and shook with tension. The skin on Samson’s face turned purple and Myers stuck the needle in his neck, pressed down the plunger and extracted it in a heartbeat. Samson gave a final twitch before going limp, a trickle of froth seeping from his mouth.

Joiner relaxed.

‘He should be out for ten minutes.’ Myers gave his Director a look of reproach. ‘It would have been a lot easier to do this before he came out of sedation.’

‘I needed to see if he could listen to reason.’

‘Could he ever?’

Joiner removed his glasses. ‘The man’s been taken to the brink; we need to bring him back if he’s to be of use. I have to admit, though, I didn’t expect him to be that far gone.’

Myers nodded. ‘The surface is starting to buckle, civilisation is breaking down. The people may not realise it, but base desires and behaviour are asserting their grip. The FBI turned a blind eye and the police encouraged the guards to inflict as much pain and suffering as they wanted.’

‘And Steiner?’

‘Some of the same, but nowhere near the extent that Samson received.’

‘That’s not what I meant. Did he survive the fire?’

‘Our priority was Samson, you made that clear.’

‘So he lives?’

‘He does.’

Joiner gave a nod, his emotions mixed. He disliked the professor and would see him dead, but even he had limits. The treatment Samson must have received he wouldn’t have inflicted on a dog – on a dead dog. He knew he enjoyed the suffering of others, sometimes at a whim, and sometimes under torture, but he’d worked with Steiner for many years in the early days of the council and he felt an unusual sense of sympathy for him.
Perhaps that’s because I may find myself in the same position
, he thought. The Committee seemed to have him in their sights for whatever reason. However, now they’d shown their hand he could prepare his defence.

‘Shall we secure him before he wakes?’ Myers said.

Joiner gave him a look. ‘Considering what we just witnessed, what do you think?’

‘I’ll see to it.’

Time passed and Joiner found himself sitting on a stool, waiting for Samson to reawaken. He looked at Myers. ‘How long now?’

‘Eighteen minutes.’

‘I thought you said he’d be out for ten.’

‘I may have given him too much,’ Myers said.

‘Will it affect his ability to function?’

‘It shouldn’t, it’ll just extend the effects.’

‘Good. And his mind will be clear and focused?’

Myers gestured at Samson who’d been strapped upright to a vertical slab. ‘We’re about to find out.’

♦

Samson opened his eyes to see two men looking at him. Both he recognised. He frowned as he tried to recall their names.

‘Do you know who we are?’ the older man said, his face gaunt and sharp, his voice grating.

Samson shook his head, trying to dispel a buzzing sensation that cloistered his senses like a lucid dream. A flash of light flared before his eyes and a spark of remembrance ignited his brain. His eyes narrowed. ‘Malcolm Joiner … what did you do to me?’

Joiner smiled. ‘A little medication is all.’

‘We need you to be all you can be,’ Myers said.

Samson switched his attention to the CIA operative. ‘You injected me.’ He struggled against his restraints. ‘Release these straps and I’ll show you what I can be.’

‘That’s good,’ Joiner said, ‘very good. We want the beast harnessed, not dead.’

‘I’ll give you the fucking beast.’ Samson bunched his arms and the straps creaked and stretched.

Joiner looked at Myers in alarm.

Samson ceased his efforts and laughed, exhausted.

A flicker of annoyance crossed Joiner’s face.

‘What, no longer enjoying yourself,
Intelligence Director
?’ Samson stared at his captor, his smile gone. ‘So,’ – he looked at Myers and then back to Joiner again – ‘what do you two fucks want with me?’

Joiner folded his arms. ‘You’re here to retrieve something.’

‘What?’

Joiner gestured at Myers, who unfurled a tablet screen and held it up for Samson to see.

Samson looked at the picture of a slim blonde. ‘Pretty. Who is she?’

‘Someone I want.’

‘Say I give a damn.’

‘Then I’d tell you she is in possession of an ancient artefact, an object many people – many
important
people – want returned.’

Samson couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘So, let me get this straight. You broke me out of a supermax prison to help you find some trinket found in a ditch?’ He shook his head. ‘You expect me to believe that?’

Joiner grew angry. ‘I don’t
care
what you believe. Only that you do as I say.’

‘What I don’t understand is why a suit like you wants some relic. What is it, the cup of life, the spear of destiny, the fucking Dead Sea scrolls?’

‘It’s an Anakim pendant of significant scientific value.’

‘A what pendant?’

Joiner considered Samson for a moment. ‘The Anakim are an extinct human ancestor, who once populated the Earth. It turns out we weren’t the first ape to turn creative.’ Joiner got up and looked to Myers. ‘Fill him in while I take a break.’

Joiner walked from the room and Samson turned his attention back to the CIA operative, his expression quizzical.

♦

The annoyance that was Malcolm Joiner returned to the room sometime later after Samson, resigned to being bored to tears, had listened as Myers brought him up to speed on the fantasy that was Sanctuary Proper and the Anakim themselves. The truth, which he still doubted to a certain extent, was hard to accept.
Although why would they make up something so fanciful? There’s no purpose to it.
Unless they’d pumped him so full of drugs he was experiencing a full blown hallucination. In some ways that would have seemed the more likely, had the video footage of this decaying subterranean world not been so detailed and extensive.

‘So,’ Joiner said, reclaiming his seat, ‘can we proceed?’

Myers nodded.

‘Excellent. Right, Colonel, now you’re one of us, so to speak, let’s get down to business. I want this pendant and you’re going to go out into Sanctuary and find it for me. You’ll lead the search, commanding all SFSD and U.S. military assets, along with SED and mercenary support.’

‘Why me?’

‘Because you can provide the motivation I desire.’

Samson chuckled.

‘Something amusing, Colonel?’

‘You might say that.’

‘Do you care to enlighten us?’

‘Well, seeing as I couldn’t give a rat’s ass what you want or where you want it – and I’m damn sure I’m not going to do it – the fact that you think I can motivate others is pretty fucking amusing, yeah.’

Joiner sat back in smug satisfaction. ‘That’s where you’re wrong, Colonel. You see, you will help and you will do so as if the mission were your own.’

‘Is that so? I no longer care what happens to me – send me back to prison, kill me; in fact I welcome it over this bullshit, at least I won’t die of boredom.’

Joiner adjusted his spectacles. ‘I am aware that death has little meaning to you, your actions in Los Angeles made that abundantly clear. Although according to our findings, we are the intelligence service after all, it seems we’re aware of some details that have eluded the FBI and LAPD.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘That the FBI agent you abducted, and who ended up as your captor, is in fact your flesh and bone, a daughter, correct?’

♦

Joiner watched Samson with interest as the man struggled with the information he’d just received.

The colonel’s blazing eyes held Joiner’s as if he could burn him into ashes with a stare. A roar of fury erupted from his lips and he thrashed violent, the vertical slab holding him swaying in response.

Joiner stepped back as Myers moved in with a tranquiliser gun. With a hiss of gas the sedative entered Samson’s arm, leaving a circle of red on his skin. Seconds later his motion calmed.

Joiner looked at Myers. ‘I need a moment alone with the Colonel.’

Myers shook his head. ‘Sir, I—’

‘That’s an order, Agent.’

Myers held his ground, before conceding defeat under his director’s unwavering gaze. After he’d left the room Joiner turned his attention back to his prisoner, who watched him like a shark eyed its next meal.

‘Colonel, this was not my idea. In fact, I advised the Committee against such action. They insisted, however; after seeing your show in LA, they wanted to utilise your talents. They instructed me they would kill your daughter if you didn’t comply with their wishes. All they want is the woman, preferably alive, but most of all they want the pendant. Bring them the pendant and they guarantee your daughter won’t be harmed.’

A drip of drool fell from the corner of Samson’s mouth. ‘Who is the Committee?’ he said, his words slow.

‘They are the power behind everything, the new ruling order. The global elite, half hide in plain sight and the other in the population’s blind spot. They control the media, education, the financial system … everything is geared to their future success, everything.’

‘I know—’

‘You know?’

‘—about the asteroids.’

Joiner was surprised, but it put Samson’s past actions into perspective. ‘Steiner told you?’

Samson nodded. ‘I gave him no choice. I want … I want my daughter here, safe haven in Sanctuary.’

Joiner gave a bob of his head. ‘A fair request – done.’

‘One … condition.’

‘Name it.’

‘Who is to carry out the order for—’

‘Who is tasked to kill your daughter?’ Joiner could have crowed, but he remained aloof and full of gravitas. ‘Have you heard of S.I.L.V.E.R., Colonel?’

He nodded.

‘Their leader has been given the task; he seems to revel in such work.’

Samson, his fervour fighting off the effects of the drug, strained forward. ‘Tell me.’

‘His name is Ophion Nexus.’

Chapter Twenty Three

‘Colonel,’ Joiner said, ‘you will be working alongside this man, along with his team. The best course of action will be for you to find this woman and return the pendant to this base. Harming Ophion will be counterproductive to your cause.’

‘What about after I have the woman?’

‘That’s for you to decide.’

Samson, returning to clarity, gave a grim smile. ‘Says the snake of snakes.’

‘Why would I lie? I sent Myers away so I could tell you the truth about the Committee. If I was behind this I’d hardly let you go – like I’m about to – arm you to the teeth, put an army behind you, and then offer up one of our best operatives. It would make no sense. I’m your best chance to keep your daughter alive, save from yourself. I’m not the enemy, despite what you may think of me.’

Samson’s mouth twisted into a leer. ‘We shall see.’

‘We shall.’ Joiner called Myers back in.

The CIA operative came to stand by Joiner’s side.

Joiner waved a hand. ‘Remove the colonel’s restraints.’

Myers looked dubious.

‘Now,’ Joiner said.

Myers eyed Samson who glared back at him. ‘At least let me sedate him again.’

Joiner sighed. ‘Very well.’

Myers produced the same dispenser and sent another shot into Samson’s arm.

When the colonel’s head dropped, Myers called six of his agents into the room, ensuring they had weapons drawn and Samson in their sights. With a final glance at his boss, he unclipped the straps and released the chains binding Samson’s limbs.