Extensis Vitae (10 page)

She answered immediately. “Hi. Is everything okay?” By the tone of her voice, he could tell that she was wide-awake as well.

“No, not really… I want to see you.”

There was a pause, and then she said, “Come to my room.”

Reznik hurriedly pulled on his uniform and went down the hall to her room. The door slid open when he stepped up to it, and Myrna was standing there, waiting. She looked very alluring with her tousled hair and skimpy outfit. She was wearing just a tight t-shirt that left her flat belly exposed and shorts that showed off her shapely legs.

She smiled at him and he stepped inside and pulled her against him. She didn’t resist, her arms sliding around his neck as he leaned down and kissed her. Her lips parted and she responded hungrily, her tongue wet and responsive. He ran his hands through her soft hair as they kissed, and she pulled down the zipper of his uniform. She ran her hands over his chest and stomach and he slid his hands down her back until he cupped her buttocks.

He easily lifted her; it seemed like she weighed next to nothing with his enhanced strength. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he slid her t-shirt up and over her head, exposing her full breasts. He pressed her against the wall and they kissed deeply as her hand snaked inside the waistband of his pants.

He carried her into the bedroom, where they shed the rest of their clothes. As they made love, Reznik wasn’t the only one pleased to discover that his new, youthful body provided a great deal of stamina in addition to its other attributes.

***

The next morning, Reznik went to meet Swanson in the portal room for his departure. Myrna led him down a couple flights of stairs and through several long corridors. They finally reached the lower vault door deep in the bowels of the complex

Reznik carried a backpack with some food and water and first aid supplies. He also had a tablet computer that was loaded with maps and access codes in case he found himself unable to gain entry to the Colony. On his belt he carried a riot baton and one of the immobilizers that the guards used. He hoped he’d be able to upgrade his weaponry once he engaged the enemy and took a few of them out.

The lower vault door was in a cavernous room. The portal itself was about twenty feet in diameter and forged from alloy steel. True to Swanson’s claims, it looked solid enough that it would take a small army to blast through it. A small booth manned by two security guards was off to the side. Administrator Swanson stood just outside the booth waiting for them, flanked by six guards.

Swanson stepped forward as they approached. “Good morning!” he boomed, an easy politician’s smile on his face. “I hope you got a good night’s sleep and are ready for your mission?”

Reznik shrugged. “As ready as I’m ever going to be,” he said.

“Well, I think we discussed everything that needed to be discussed last evening. Might as well get on with it, then. Open the vault door!” Swanson commanded.

One of the guards in the booth pushed a few buttons on the control panel. A red light started flashing and a warning klaxon went off. There was a loud whirring of machinery and a hiss as steam escaped from around the vault door.

With a deep rumbling, the door began to rotate and pull back inside the room. It turned like the head of a giant bolt as it rolled back into its track and rose up toward the ceiling. The massive door looked to be about two meters thick. After a minute, it slammed against the end of its track with a loud
boom,
and steam hissed from the motors that moved the massive steel slab.

The siren shut off, and it was eerily silent for a moment. The flashing red light continued, and Reznik could see a rough-hewn tunnel beyond the portal. Lights flickered to life in the tunnel that led into the unknown.

Myrna slid her arms around him briefly and gave him a hug. “Be safe,” she murmured in his ear.

He returned the hug. “See you soon,” he promised.

“Best of luck, friend,” Swanson offered.

With a mock salute to Swanson, Reznik adjusted the straps on his pack and started down the tunnel. As soon as he was across the threshold, the machinery and siren came to life again and the vault door began moving back into place.
One-way ticket from here
, he thought as he walked the short distance to the intersection with the main tunnel.

Behind him, the vault door shut with a massive
boom
that echoed down the tunnel and sent a tremor through the earth around him.
So much for stealth if anyone is nearby,
he thought as he cinched the pack tighter and entered the main tunnel.

Chapter 8

W
hile experimenting with his Datalink system, Reznik had figured out how to scan the spectrum for radio waves. Numbers cycled on his HUD as his Datalink scanned for signals. He hoped to be able to detect the signals generated by any explosive triggering devices before stumbling into a trap like he had seen in the video.

It was approximately fifteen miles from portal to portal, so he input the distance into his HUD in order to keep an eye on the countdown as he walked. He wasn’t optimistic about picking up any transmissions from survivors of Dr. Kane’s expedition or from Colony 13.

Reznik made good time, walking for about an hour before he stopped to take a swig of water. He strained his hearing, trying to pick out any sounds ahead. He could hear the faint dripping of water somewhere, but that was all.

As he continued, he wondered if he could turn off the lights. It would be a great advantage if the tunnel were dark. The old Special Ops slogan,
“We Own the Night,”
came to mind from his past.

He studied the lights, noting that they appeared to be hard-wired to an electrical conduit that ran along the ceiling of the tunnel. There had been no sign of any switches or breaker boxes anywhere. Reznik briefly considered trying to cut the power, but didn’t want to electrocute himself without the proper tools. He wasn’t even sure if it would take out all of the lights for the entire tunnel or just certain sections at a time.

Continuing on, Reznik had to force his hand to relax as his knuckles were cramping up from holding the riot baton. His display showed only five miles remaining. He couldn’t be sure where the last team had gotten ambushed, but he figured it was within a mile or two of Colony 13.

The tunnel was featureless, curving slightly to the left. It measured about twenty feet across, and had a smooth, flat floor. The walls and ceiling were smoothly rounded from the stone, as if a massive drill had created the passageway. There were no intersections or offshoot tunnels. He passed several spots where water had managed to find a way through the rock and had trickled down into the tunnel, leaving small puddles.

After another couple miles, his Datalink picked up an RF signal. He slowed, advancing cautiously while scanning the tunnel for explosives. As a precaution, he used a technique that the military had found effective in countering IED attacks, and jammed the frequency the device was operating on, preventing it from being able to transmit. He found a small sensor attached high up on the wall and moved in close to examine it. It looked to be a motion sensor with a wireless relay. The device was haphazardly stuck to the stone with a gummy substance.
This must alert the ambushers when someone is approaching
, he thought.

Reznik continued on past the sensor and stopped jamming it when it was out of range. An idea was forming in his head as to how to beat the ambushers at their own game.

When he was less than a quarter of a mile from Colony 13, his Datalink picked up the RF signal of another device. He proceeded even more cautiously, suspecting that this device would be some type of remotely triggered explosive. Sure enough, concealed in a niche against the wall was what looked like an anti-personnel mine, similar to what Reznik was familiar with from the military.

He continued to scout ahead, and about a hundred yards farther down, just out of sight around the curvature of the tunnel, were a few barrels and crates lining the walls. His Datalink couldn’t detect any other signals, and he decided this was where the ambushers would wait for their prey to trip the mine. Slowly, he slipped past the makeshift barricade. The stench of urine was strong in the enclosed space. He saw shattered glass and a number of cigarette butts littering the floor.

The portal to Colony 13 was just ahead. The vault door was rolled back and the opening was clear. He listened intently, and when he strained his hearing to its maximum range, he could just barely make out the faint sounds of voices from somewhere within. Knowing it was better to bring the enemy to familiar ground rather than taking them on in their territory, he put his plan into action.

Reznik returned to where the mine was. He dropped his backpack to the ground, since he wouldn’t need it until after the action, and carefully pulled the mine free of the wall. He carried it back to the barricade and looked for a good spot to place it. Just inside the barricade, he stuck it against the wall and slid a crate next to it so the mine wouldn’t be visible from the other side. He backed away and jogged back down the passageway.

After about a mile, his Datalink picked up the RF signal of the motion sensor again. He rounded the slight curve of the tunnel and approached the sensor. His Datalink registered the moment when the sensor detected him and it sent a brief data transmission before returning to its idle state.

Reznik sprinted back down the corridor, covering over a mile incredibly fast with his augmented muscles. His heart pumped steady and strong, and his lungs were filled with oxygen. He stopped near where the anti-personnel mine had originally been placed, just around the bend and out of sight of the barricade. He felt as invigorated as if he’d only jogged a hundred yards or so instead of sprinting for over a mile.

He waited, straining to hear anything. After a minute or two, the sounds of voices got louder.

“Ha, can’t believe those fools are coming back. Wonder what they’re gonna try to do this time.”

There was a grunt of agreement, and then a voice said, “Hopefully they have more women with them this time. These bitches we got now are getting a little wore out, I’d say.” There was general laughter at the comment.

“All right, you fools, get in position and shut the fuck up.” The voice was familiar to Reznik from the video: it was that of the leader, Haze. “This should be—“ The voice was cut off as the anti-personnel mine exploded. With his Datalink, Reznik had fired off a signal burst on the matching frequency, causing the sensitive device to detonate.

The explosion shook the passageway; the sound was deafening. Reznik’s ears seemingly had a suppressor to prevent damage, as the sound was suddenly damped down to almost nothing. He barely paid any attention, as he was already sprinting down the tunnel.

He covered the hundred yards in four seconds flat. The tunnel was full of smoke and debris from the barricade that had been blown apart. He leapt a good dozen yards through the air, clearing the debris and bodies and landing in a crouch.

There were four men on the ground, cursing and trying to pick themselves up. One of them appeared to be either unconscious or dead. The other three looked to be in varying stages of shock as Reznik attacked.

His riot baton came down with enough force to crush the skull of the first outlaw. He dropped back down limply. Reznik turned to the other two.

The second was trying to pull a knife from his waist. Reznik snapped the baton down, shattering the outlaw’s wrist. He cried out in pain and cursed as the knife fell. Reznik gave him a kick to the face that shattered his jaw.

The third outlaw was up and coming at Reznik with an ugly-looking metal cudgel. He was wiry with a shaved head, and his snarl revealed a number of missing teeth. A ragged scar ran from the corner of his mouth to his ear.

“Who the fuck are you?” His eyes were narrow slits as he feinted with the cudgel. Reznik leaned back out of reach.

Reznik ignored him and lunged forward, easily getting inside the outlaw’s guard with his boosted quickness. He drove his fist into the man’s stomach, followed up by a blow to the mouth with the baton that knocked out the remaining front teeth. The outlaw cursed as blood and teeth flew, then Reznik crushed his throat with another strike of the baton. As he collapsed gasping for air, Reznik stepped back and finished off the second outlaw with a quick snap of the neck.

Reznik surveyed the damage, surprised to note that the leader was not among the fallen. The outlaw with the crushed throat was clawing bloody tracks in his neck. His face was turning purple and he wheezed and gurgled on blood. He wouldn’t last more than a couple minutes.