Zero Point (15 page)

“Look at that,” Eli marveled from behind, as he pointed to the sharp-edged columns suspended like ghostly fingers from the cave ceiling.

“They’re basalt stalactites, Dr. Turner,” Maria said. “They formed because the lava dripped from the ceiling as the vent slowly cooled. Some even bear a close resemblance to sharks’ teeth.”

“What is that reflecting off the stalactite? Did we hit the mother lode of gold?” Samuel asked with a chuckle as he walked up beside her.

“I’m sorry to burst your bubble, Samuel,” Maria replied. “It’s only the reflection of a deposit of calcite crystals. These caves are loaded with calcite and gypsum. Some lava tubes at other places in the world are known to go as far as twenty miles.”

“I hope that’s not the case here,” Turner said.

“I knew you were getting soft, Josh,” Samuel said in mock disdain. “Too many burgers when you were in the states, huh?”

“We have to watch for break-outs in the floor that lead to lower chambers,” Maria interrupted. “If one of us were to fall in, there would be no way to get out without the proper climbing gear.”

“How are you doing, Dad?” Turner asked his father, worried about the effects of the blow to the head he received earlier.

“Ah, I’m okay, Son. I’m a tough old bird, but I promise you that when we get out of here, I’m gonna pay a visit to those bastards that tried to kill us,” he said in an angry tone.

“Not so fast, Dr. Turner,” Captain Saune said from behind the two men. “We don’t know who we’re dealing with, and I would strongly suggest that we obtain the manpower to launch a proper raid on that Bishamon complex.”

“I agree with the captain, Dad. We need to go to the authorities first. Do you have any idea why they attacked you?” he asked, as the group continued going around a gaping chasm in the floor that dropped into the deep recesses beneath them.

“My guess is a drug smuggling operation,” Samuel said, jumping into the conversation, “but it just doesn't make any sense as to why they would risk exposing their operation like this.”

“Hey, we all know that crooks aren’t the brightest people in the gene pool,” Turner offered. “And hopefully, as far as they suspect, we’re all dead. I’m hoping the guy we sent
nighty-night outside of the cave woke up and reported the cave-in to his superiors.”

“I can have a tactical unit ready in a moment’s notice,” Captain Saune said. “The warrants though, could become a diplomatic problem since this is a foreign interest. We—”

“Shush,” Maria said from the lead position. “Everyone stop. Put out the lantern Private Gonzales.”

Gonzales quickly extinguished the lantern, thrusting the group into total blackness. Samuel switched on the flashlight, keeping the beam aimed at the floor, which cast a dull light sufficient to see within a few yards.

Turner, Maria, Captain Saune and the private quickly flipped down and powered up their night vision goggles, casting their world into an eerie green glow.

“What’s the matter, Maria?” Turner whispered. He walked up to her in the lead as she crouched, her eyes and ears intent on something ahead of them in the darkness.

“I could have sworn I heard footsteps coming from that way, Josh,” she said, pointing to a branch in the lava tube ahead of them that split into two directions. “It sounded like it came from the left branch.”

“Are you sure it wasn't the echo of our footsteps?” Turner asked.

His question was answered by the sound of gunfire up ahead, echoing throughout the cavern as he, and the rest of the group, instinctively crouched low against the lava tube’s wall.

“That definitely came from the left branch,” Turner said in a whisper to Maria, who had taken his arm and now held it tightly. “Quick, Maria, head back to Samuel and give him your night vision gear,” he whispered.

“Hey,” she retorted defensively. “I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can, Maria, but Samuel is armed and we’ll need him to have the night vision gear,” he responded, gently brushing her cheek with his fingers. “I don’t want you to get hurt. I couldn’t live with that, alright?”

“Okay,” she replied in agreement, “but only because I’m not that good with guns anyway.”

She turned to go back as Saune and Gonzales reached the lead where Turner, now crouched low, was looking ahead.

“Captain, please have Private Gonzales take Maria and my father into the right branch of the tunnel divide and find them some cover.”

“Do it,” Captain Saune ordered to his man, sending him back as Samuel appeared out of the darkness wearing the night vision gear given to him by Maria.

“What’s the story, guys?” Samuel asked, adjusting the headgear on his goggles and then pulling the 45 from his waistband.

“Sounds like more of our friends from Bishamon are headed this way,” Turner answered.

“Do you think they heard us coming?” Samuel asked.

“I don’t think they were close enough,” Captain Saune replied and then added, “but from the original report of gun fire, I’d say they were a good distance away. Don’t ask me what they were shooting at.”

“See that lava pool off to the left?” Turner said
,
pointing to an almost perfectly rounded three-foot depression in the ground that he had seen before they first heard the shots. “We can use that for cover. Let’s go,” The three men sprinted across the thirty-meter wide cavern. One by one, they dropped into the lava pool using the high side of the ancient depression as cover. Saune swung the AK-47 to the ready as Turner and Samuel brought their 45-automatics to bear on the darkened tunnel ahead. Turner could see Gonzales in his night vision goggles leading Maria and Eli into the right branch of the lava tube and, thankfully, out of danger.

After a few minutes, they all heard the distinct sound of footsteps growing ominously louder and coming directly towards them. Then, just as quickly, they saw a dim beam of light as it came around a bend no more than fifteen feet from the three men in the cover of the lava pool.

To Turner, the figure coming at them wearing a lab coat hardly looked like a mercenary. He could see that he was unarmed and saw the blood stain on his jacket. The halogen light he held was dying quickly as the man slowed his approach.

Breathing heavy from fatigue after his long flight down the lava tube, Yashiro Fuiruchirudo failed to notice the three
figures watching him from the recess of the lava pool. Exhausted beyond all reason, he slowed, turned around, and began walking backward. He listened for the sound of his pursuers, who had relentlessly followed him from the access tunnel at the base of the facility.

He could still hear the men coming for him, their footfalls echoing in the cavern as they drew ever closer. His fatigue now outweighed his fear, as he had been on the run for over two hours. He stopped from time to time only to catch his breath and to listen for his pursuers. He knew that they were toying with him, like a cat toying with a mouse; playing with it until it was time for the lethal bite. He could hear their laughter as they relentlessly followed him down through the lava tube.

Yashiro agonizingly realized that his time was almost up. He was exhausted and his halogen light was now going dead. In complete despair he would now wait here in the darkness; wait for the final shot that would put him out of his misery.

Yashiro missed his wife and child, and longed to be able to say goodbye.

He let out a muffled scream as a hand suddenly cupped his mouth and he found himself being brutally dragged into a pit. As Yashiro fell, he let go of his light. It hit the floor and shattered its lens, turning his world into one of total darkness. Yashiro felt the cold steel of a gun barrel being pressed against his head. A voice said, “Give me a real good reason as to why I shouldn’t blow your head off, amigo.”

“Please!” Yashiro pleaded in a hoarse voice. “Please help me. They are going to kill me.”

“Who’s going to kill you?” Turner asked in a whisper.

“The guards from Bishamon,” Yashiro said weakly. “They’re trying to keep me from escaping and warning the authorities,” he said in near panic.

“Here they come,” Captain Saune said in a whisper as he brought his AK-47 to bear over the lip of the ledge. “Get ready.”

“If you want to live, keep your head down and don’t try anything cute. Understand?” Turner said to Yashiro, who for the first time tonight felt a glimmer of hope as he scrambled behind the men in the darkness. He laid flat on the ground with his hands over his head.

The four Bishamon guards rounded the turn in the lava tube, knowing that they were near their prey and closing in for the kill. The leader told the others that he wanted the first shot to wound him, but after that they could indulge themselves. The four wore night vision goggles and carried a light as they walked through the tunnel nonchalantly, like hikers on a holiday. They never expected to encounter a trio of armed men, and were caught off guard when they heard a loud voice.

“Drop the weapons now!” Turner yelled, pointing his 45 at the man on the far right.

The lead guard spotted the three in their protected position in the lava pool, but made the fatal mistake of raising
his AK-47. He was instantly cut down by a blazing onslaught from Captain Saune’s weapon. The other guards foolishly followed his lead and met the same fate in a hail of bullets from the trio in their ancient bunker. The Yakuza soldiers fell dead on the floor in a spreading pool of blood.

“That’s for my men you butchered,” Saune hissed, as the haze and burning odor of spent weapons permeated the cavern.

“Is everyone okay?” Samuel asked, rising up from the floor and cautiously walking over to the Bishamon guards.

“We’re fine, Samuel,” Turner responded. He then yelled, “Alright Dad, the coast is clear. You’re safe to come out.”

“Those guys are all dead, Josh,” said Samuel, returning from the scene of the carnage just played out.

“They would gladly die before ever giving up,” said a relieved Yashiro, who now slowly stood up off the ground.

“Who were they, and why were they after you?” Turner asked, retrieving the lantern and lighting the wick with a match. Once again the chamber was cast with a ghostly yellow light. Switching off the night vision, he flipped up the unit into the stow position and looked at the young, disheveled Japanese man sitting in front of him. Private Gonzales and his charges walked over to the group and knelt down in the soft yellow light as Yashiro started to speak.

“They were Yakuza soldiers; members of the Yagato Osama clan, and are sworn to do his bidding even unto their own death.”

“Isn’t the Yakuza the Japanese equivalent of our Mafia?” Eli asked the fatigued scientist.

“Yes, but our version is rumored to have been around since the seventeenth century in Japan. It was originally known as the Hatamoto
-
yakko
, or
Machi
-
yokko, which means servants of the town. Those men you killed are part of Osama’s Gurentai: his gang,” Yashiro replied, flinching as Maria touched his wounded arm.

“You’ve been wounded,” she said reaching for the canteen in the backpack.

“Just a slight graze from a bullet,” he replied. “It’s not serious.”

“Let’s clean it up to be sure,” she said as she helped the shaken scientist remove his lab coat. Maria began cleaning the wound as Yashiro took a grateful drink of water from the canteen.

“Alright, friend, who are you and what were you talking about when you said you had to warn the authorities?” Turner asked as he squatted down next to him on the cold rock floor of the cave.

“My name is Yashiro Fuiruchirudo,” he said in broken English, “and I am a geo-physicist from Kobe, Japan. I was hired originally to work on a new energy source by Bishamon Corporation, a Japanese company set up and funded by an American named Robert Pencor.”

“Pencor?
I remember him,” Eli said. “Wasn’t he under indictment by a Federal Grand Jury back in the middle of the
last decade? Not a very nice man from what I’ve read. I heard that he fled the country.”

“Yashiro, I’m Josh Turner and this is my father Eli. Over here are Maria Santiago and Samuel Caberra,” he said pointing to the pair seated next to them. “Those two fellows over there are Captain Saune and Private Gonzales from the Tenerife Guardia
Civil
.
Some goons from Bishamon tried to kill them earlier and make it look like an accident. I think you owe us an explanation,” he stated emphatically.

“Have you ever heard of Scalar weaponry?” Yashiro asked as he rubbed his leg. It was sore from the fall he incurred as he was pulled into the lava pool.

“Can’t say I have,” Turner replied, taking a drink of water from the canteen.

“It is a weapon that comes from the study of Zero Point energy and—”

“Zero Point what?” Samuel interrupted with a confused look.

“Let me put it to you in simpler terms,” Yashiro said, seeing he had to keep it understandable for his listeners. “In the world of quantum mechanics, it was discovered many years ago that there is an energy source that exists all around us. All matter at the atomic level is surrounded by a vacuum in space-time, which is filled with particles of negative energy. It was discovered that this energy could be tapped and utilized as a free, never-ending supply of energy.”