The World After (19 page)

The conference room in the Agency for Tracking the Untraceables' office in Itanagar was bursting with people, but everyone was quiet while Shimi Levy was talking.

The man who ruled this Agency for decades with an iron fist was furious. When he was furious, everyone was trying to keep a low profile around him. After lashing the agents under his personal command and local operatives for not being able to find the Yuyuan's secret base all these years of searching, he went on to the directors of the other continents for their inability to catch main members of the organization while they were travelling all over the world. Only after everyone got a piece of his mind did he start talking about the big problem they had.

With the help of several computer simulations quickly prepared by the local nerds working for them, he showed everyone the consequences of what was going to happen if they were to fail in preventing Fukuzawa's virus from becoming active. The big problem obviously was where the survivors of the initial attack were and how they were going to proceed with their plan once their high-tech computer center under the lake was destroyed.

“I want every agent looking at possibilities and coming up with ideas. We must come up with a plan now or there won't be tomorrow for us or for humankind,” Shimi Levy's voice echoed. After these last words, most of the men and women left the room.

In the end, it was him and the four other directors of the Agency that were left alone.

“So what are we doing now?” Neyton Jackson, who was in charge of the Agency's affairs in Africa, asked.

“I gave it some thought. We should start eliminating the unlikely options. They need proper power to be able to work their computers, and after their hiding place was destroyed, they're probably out of transportation too,” Shimi Levy said.

“How do we know they still have the opportunity and resources to execute their plan after we hit right in their heart?” William Grant, who used to be the direct boss of Agent MacGeady in South America, asked.

“We're talking here about some of the brightest minds in our history. Do you think they didn't consider the eventuality of being found? I'm sure they have a backup plan, and it's our job to figure out what it is. As I said, we start by eliminating the impossible options.”

The men spent the next three hours arguing and scratching from the digital map places and locations that for one reason or another looked unlikely to be used. This limited the flashing dots to only four. At this point, Shimi Levy got off his chair, his finger circled the dot under which twinkled the name Itanagar.

“They must have some support here, and this is where they'll head to. All those years, it would have been impossible for so many people to exist unnoticed without outside help, the only big city in the region is this, and everything else around us is small towns and villages. Their backup option is somewhere here. The other options are too unlikely.” Nobody argued with him, and Shimi Levy continued. “I want every agent out on the streets, every informer to be squeezed and pressed until they tell us everything they know. Contact the bloody Indians too, tell them to send every soldier and law-enforcer in the area here. We need to stop them at all cost.”

Shimi Levy was left alone in the conference room as his colleagues rushed to shout orders and organize the mass search of every inch of Itanagar. The director looked through the glass window at the panic and hectic urgency of everyone outside, and a new awful headache hit him. He was late for his next cocktail of drugs, but this had to wait a while longer.

Shimi Levy pressed a hidden button on the underside of his collar and a side door slid open. Two agents in dark suits walked in, an old man in between them. Ademar Gamejro's tired and puffy eyes looked up and met the steel gaze of the director of the ATU. Shimi Levy grinned.

* * *

Taylor Swansea gave a hand to his blond companion; she used it to climb next to him on the pointy rock hanging in midair over the swamps and forests of Arunachal Pradesh.

“We best make a short break,” Carolina said, and they sat on the edge of the rock, taking in the stunning view.

They had climbed at a very good pace for the past two hours, and as the day went on, the clouds cleared and the first traces of snow were already around them.

“How far do we have to go?” Taylor asked.

“Roughly another three – four miles of climb, but it's getting harder the further up we go.”

“I'm not worried. We'll make it before midnight.” The two of them knew that they would get a half hour window just past the last hour of the day in which they had to broadcast their signal.

“We'll face problems though. I know that in such a remote place there won't be many guards, but according to our surveillance there are constantly four soldiers and two computer specialists living in the communication mast,” Carolina said.

“It's up to us to find a way to eliminate them. We'll think about that once we're up there. At least the darkness will provide us cover.”

They went quiet after that and just stared at the beauty all around them.

As they set off back up the steep and very dangerous terrain, there was no more time for talking, but somewhat strangely, Carolina felt comfortable in the company of her companion. She had given him to carry the all-important laptop with the computer commands and programs they needed to broadcast their signal. As Fukuzawa had explained to them, everything was pretty straight forward once they had access to the computer system in the mast.

The two were slightly surprised that all through their near seven-hour climb they didn't have to hide from soldiers searching the area, or the scanning drones that flew regularly over the mountain.

During their next break, Taylor pointed that out and Carolina answered, “I'm not sure how good this news is. I mean it's good for us, but my fear is that this is because all forces are redirected towards Itanagar. Our friends are heading into a nightmare.”

“Unfortunately, I think you're right. However, our task is clear and we must focus on it and stop thinking about anything else.”

They kept advancing easily enough once the day was over because night-vision goggles were part of their equipment. Exactly forty minutes before midnight, they reached the communication mast. The two of them took cover behind a pointy rock and, for five minutes, observed the quiet and empty yard behind the small iron fence.

Up here the wind was very strong and the snow cover was at least a foot deep, two things that were in their favor. The sound from the wind covered every accidental sound they were making, while the fresh snow from two nights ago helped them to see exactly where the soldiers were patrolling.

There were no human tracks outside the small courtyard, which wasn't so surprising with the area hardly being suitable for walking, but it was a bit strange to Taylor that none of the four soldiers supposed to be there was to be seen around.

The tall mast was at the back end of the yard, and under it was the metal construction that was pretty much everything – sleeping quarters, living area, kitchen, and of course, the communication room they needed to gain access to. The three small windows radiated soft artificial light, which was a certain sign that somebody was there. Once, they saw a shadow crossing in front of one of the windows, but the door remained closed for five more minutes, and with time pressing them, they had to decide what to do.

Taylor initially thought that at least two men would be outside on guard. He thought to deal with them quietly before entering. Now he was worried that four soldiers altogether in an enclosed space might be too much for the two of them. They didn't think much about the two computer specialists as their professions suggested a lack of combat skills, although Carolina herself was very good with computers and she already had told her companion about her two brown belts from different areas of martial arts.

“We can't wait more or we'll be too late,” Carolina said.

“I was thinking, what if we make our way inside the yard and then make some noise, just to draw some of the men inside out in the dark so we don't encounter all of them together.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Carolina didn't wait for him and slipped down from the rock before quickly making her way to the fence.

By the time Taylor rejoined her, she had already cut a hole big enough for them to squeeze through, and at quarter to midnight, they were sheltered under the window nearest to the door. Taylor had a quick look, but despite the lit room and the switched on TV, he couldn't see anyone. Carolina took a position on the other side of the door, while her partner got ready to attract attention.

As they were getting enough light from inside, the night-vision was of no use, and they put their goggles away before Taylor made a hard snowball and smashed it at the window. The ringing sound it created was easily heard even outside, but nobody emerged or even came to the window to look what had caused it.

Taylor repeated his action with the same outcome. It was five minutes before midnight. Carolina waved to him to follow her behind the outside emergency generator just to the side of the small building. Hidden behind it from anyone who could possibly walk out, she said, “We don't have time. I need at least ten minutes on the computer to be able to broadcast the signal before half past midnight.”

“I don't like it at all. There is definitely someone inside, we saw the moving shadow, and yet nobody guards outside and nobody came to check what made that sound.”

“I don't like it either, but we don't have a choice. I'm going in, with or without you.”

Taylor stared for a minute at her soft blue eyes that looked back at him with determination. He naturally liked her, maybe that was the reason why he nodded and told her to follow him.

Back under the window, this time they were together, Taylor stood up and slowly scanned the room, but again everything looked as if there was someone there–blanket thrown on the sofa, TV working, half-drunk glasses on the table–but apart from that, there was no sign of life. He stood in plain sight for a good half a minute but nothing changed, nobody rushed or fired at him. With no other choice, they simply walked to the door and, with a powerful kick, stormed into the room, pointing their guns left and right.

They couldn't see anyone and, after checking the empty kitchen and bedroom, made their way towards the communication area, placed right under the base of the mast. Before they entered it, Carolina looked nervously at the clock on the wall – eight minutes past midnight. Taylor tried the door, it creaked open, but they froze in their tracks once they were able to see.

Four soldiers had their machine guns pointing at them while on one of the chairs right in front of them sat Ademar Gamejro. Behind him, Shimi Levy was smiling at them with a gun pressed to the Brazilian's head.

* * *

Ten hours earlier, the streets of Itanagar were completely blocked to all civil traffic, the only vehicles and men seen on them were soldiers or ATU agents. Every single agent was feverishly searching building by building, but despite the manpower and all the equipment, there was still no trace of the members of the Yuyuan or their hiding place from where they were going to try and change the world.

Thousands of Indian soldiers were spread around. Once the night fell, they had checked nearly three-quarters of all buildings, but still there were no results, and Shimi Levy's nerves were barely holding on. The director of the ATU paced nervously in the computer hall of his Agency's building and on the dozen monitors kept looking at live feed coming from the streets outside. He couldn't fault the effort put in by his agents or the soldiers, but he started questioning his own judgment that the fugitives would head this way.

He walked back to the conference room and the side door. He opened it to see the two men in suits sitting quietly in the corner while Ademar Gamejro was sleeping exhausted on a bed next to them. Shimi Levy only nodded to the men and before leaving the room said, “Wake him up if I'm not back in an hour. He'll have to give us more. I'm sure there is more information somewhere in his brain.”

After five minutes, he was on the back seat of one of the Agency's indigo cars, heading towards the suburbs of Itanagar that were closest to the swamps.

Fukuzawa, Jinhun, Grossmayer and five other men from their organization pushed themselves onto dry ground. The awful stench around them was all over them. They had spent the last two hours making their way into the city through the sewerage system built by Masterson. With the plans exact and accurate, it wasn't hard to follow the desired direction in the maze of tunnels even without light, and the eight of them had reached their goal.

Once they left the cave temple, their group of only several hundred survivors didn't stay together for long. They all made their way into the woods and down the hills, but as search parties of the Indian Army nearly detected them twice, it soon became evident that such a big group wouldn't make it unnoticed. Grossmayer gave orders to most of the survivors to head back to the temple and wait there until the next day when everything would be over, successfully or not.

After that Jinhun's skills and MacGeady's training proved enough to see their group of ten reaching the hidden transport safely. Just on the edge of the forest, what followed after that was vast open field at the far end of which was Itanagar. They slipped into a hidden hole in the ground that for somebody that didn't know would look like a rabbit hole even if he stood right next to it. Actually it was a much larger tunnel that took them deep under the roots of the nearby trees and to a machine that wasn't used anymore.

“Masterson, may God give peace to his soul, used this type of digger to do many of his sewer systems around the world.” Grossmayer explained to a slightly surprised MacGeady.

“So this is pretty much a mechanized mole.” The ex-agent looked at the spiral front of the big vehicle.

“Exactly, we just entered through the hole it made while Masterson was hiding it here. It should give us safe passage to the city.”