2040 Revelations (11 page)

♦

The next day Steiner made his way to Steadfast’s military quarter. Once at the appropriate barracks, a guard informed him Samson conducted exercises for his men in a nearby training ground. Steiner had brought his last remaining bodyguard along with his aides as a matter of course. Hopefully this would deter Samson, who sounded like he could be borderline insane, from chopping Steiner down in front of witnesses.
I can’t afford to die at the moment
, he thought to himself with more than a little sardonic humour.

‘I’d like to speak with the colonel, please,’ Steiner told one of Samson’s troops, who lounged at the entrance to the compound.

‘He’s exercising with the men,’ the soldier said, looking at his watch. ‘He’ll be finished in five, wait here and I’ll let him know as soon as he’s finished.’

‘Thank you, Sergeant,’ Steiner said, and moved away from his retinue to wait, which wasn’t long as soon after Samson stalked out to meet him.

‘You wanted to see me?’ the colonel said, irritation written all over his face.

‘I did.’ Steiner moved further away from prying ears. ‘I’m not going to beat about the proverbial bush, Colonel. You have threatened one of my personnel with physical violence; they also happen to be a friend of mine, so I shall put this very clearly. You will request a transfer to U.S.S.B. Haven immediately or I will have you forcibly removed and detained until I decide what to have done with you. Do you understand me, Colonel?’

Towering over him, Samson’s face darkened and he leaned down menacingly
.
Steiner’s bodyguard moved forwards, but Steiner held up his hand to stop him.

Samson looked round and laughed. ‘Your bodyguard doesn’t scare me and neither do your empty threats. I’m going nowhere.’

‘That would be unwise,’ Steiner said, holding his ground. ‘You do not want to try me.’

The colonel smiled and walked off without another word, eyeballing Steiner’s bodyguard as he went.

That went badly
, Steiner thought. His threat of moving Samson by force was a weak one considering his current relations with the Joint Chiefs and the military fraternity. Apparently Samson knew that too, or else he just didn’t give a crap.
At least Richard has my bodyguards for protection
, he reflected.

Looking at the bigger picture, Steiner decided he needed to call in some contractors as soon as possible. Now that the U.S. military essentially danced to their own tune, the GMRC itself had been compromised; his hand had been forced and he had to return the status quo. If the Joint Chiefs and Joiner wanted to play games, then he still had some final cards to play.

Chapter Seven

A private plane touched down on a military airstrip five miles outside of the town of Dulce, New Mexico. A group of black SUVs made their way out from one of the hangars as the aircraft came to rest half a mile away. No sooner had the engines shut down than a ladder was manoeuvred into place as a door opened above. Men in dark suits exited, many donning shades to fend off the dazzling rays as the sun beat down overhead. As the SUVs came to a stop nearby, a final group of people emerged from the opening.

Malcolm Joiner, Director of National and GMRC Intelligence, stepped down onto the baking hot tarmac and moved to his waiting vehicle. He was glad to get inside the air-conditioned cabin as his men climbed in around him. The small convoy begun to move and a short while later they were passing the checkpoint to the military compound guarding the primary surface entrance to U.S.S.B. Steadfast. The vehicles cleared a final security sweep and were then driven onto one of the enormous elevator mechanisms; an engineering marvel that had been utilised the world over in subterranean complexes as the principal surface-to-interior transportation system. Thick, super-hardened doors encapsulated the convoy on a wide, expansive oval platform, while teams of workers prepped the structure for departure. Ten, twenty and then thirty minutes ticked by as they waited for the other levels of the elevator to be loaded up, the system being too large an operation to warrant deployment for small parties and Joiner’s arrival having been timed so that it coincided with that day’s descent schedule.

Soon enough sirens sounded and beacons flashed as speakers announced magnetic coil locks had disengaged and surface departure was imminent. Grinding noises sent vibrations through the platform and a loud whining assaulted the senses, indicating the turbine engines had powered up. The super elevator gave a lurch and then descended steadily toward its destination, the huge engines ensuring the whole load didn’t plummet in freefall towards the distant shaft floor thousands of feet below.

The small convoy arrived at the central chamber of the base two hours later. Joiner looked up as they passed underneath a large arch to see the Command Centre’s building rise up to the ceiling and on into the chamber above. Huge letters ran vertically down the imposing structure spelling out the name
U.S.S.B. STEADFAST
.

Joiner was displeased at having to move his operational offices at such a late hour in the impact countdown calendar.
Steiner was proving to be an annoyance; power had gone to the man’s head.
Still
, he thought to himself with some satisfaction,
that will become less of a problem in the near future
. The winds of change above and below the surface grew in strength, a shift of power an inevitability. Steiner might think he had him under his command, but Joiner knew differently; many things were far from what they seemed. Even before Steiner had been brought onboard all those years ago at the White House, Joiner had been laying down plans which were only now reaching fruition some twenty-three years later.

Exiting the car and accompanied by his entourage of intelligence agents, Joiner entered the Command Centre. A few hours on, after he’d settled into his new surroundings, he summoned Nathan Bryant, the political aide who’d become an integral part of the U.S. and GMRC’s management of the upcoming global event. Joiner had been surprised and momentarily vexed by Bryant’s presence at Steadfast; he had placed him in South Korea for a reason, but ever the adept at manipulating the unexpected to align with his own agenda, Joiner saw it as an advantageous opportunity.

His office door opened a while later and one of Joiner’s agents ducked their head inside. ‘Director?’

Joiner looked up from his desk.

‘Nathan Bryant, sir,’ the man informed him.

‘Send him in,’ Joiner said, turning off his screen with a flick of his infrared finger circlet.

Bryant entered the room looking relaxed and confident, as he usually did. ‘Ah, Director, you wanted to see me?’ he said, lacking his usual aggravating grin and sitting down before being invited to do so.

Joiner disliked Bryant immensely; cockiness and eternal happiness exuded from him like pus from a boil. No one should be happy all the time; it wasn’t right. Joiner himself rarely felt happy and when he did it wasn’t normally because he’d achieved something, it was because others had failed in their endeavours. He reasoned Bryant must always be gloating at others’ failures, which infuriated Joiner more than he could say; he wondered what his secret was.

‘Is everything proceeding as we arranged?’ Joiner said.

Bryant looked uncomfortable and nodded, his sickly smile nowhere to be seen on his annoying face.

‘He doesn’t suspect you are not his man anymore?’ Joiner said.

Bryant’s expression stiffened. ‘No.’

‘It was unwise of you to tell him about the equipment and the military’s involvement. I underestimated your stupidity; have you forgotten our little arrangement so quickly?’

Bryant shook his head. ‘Of course not.’

‘Then why are you here at Steadfast?’

‘The professor asked me to come,’ Bryant said, his voice a pathetic whine. ‘I had no choice. It would have looked suspicious if I’d refused.’

‘If you betray me again the consequences for you will be dire, but for others – fatal,’ Joiner said, eagerly watching as Nathan squirmed in his seat, his fear plain to see. Every man had his price, Joiner knew, and Bryant was no different. ‘So what is he up to, our beloved leader?’

‘He’s making final preparations for the impact; that’s his job, after all.’

‘Don’t get cute with me,’ Joiner said, eyes narrowing, ‘or you’ll find I can make your life quite unbearable.’

Bryant looked at him with hatred and Joiner smiled. That was something else that brought him pleasure; other people’s discomfort and suffering, two things that his job enabled him to revel in on a regular basis.

‘Steiner doesn’t suspect my involvement behind the military’s departure from his control,’ Joiner said, ‘or that the UN Secretary General is acting under my orders?’

‘No, he seems to have his hands full with the military stonewalling him, a Colonel Samson threatening Richard Goodwin and the imminent meteor impact. Quite a lot to keep any man occupied, even one as gifted as the professor.’

‘Excellent. Now, what aren’t you telling me?’ he said, catching Nathan on the hop. Joiner had unnerving powers of perception; he hadn’t reached his position by chance. Secrecy, manipulation and anticipation were just a few of his skills.

‘I don’t know what you mean.’ Nathan sounded unconvincing as Joiner’s gimlet eyes bored into him.

Joiner didn’t say anything, but piled the pressure on Bryant using silence as his weapon.

‘He’s bringing in contractors, private contractors,’ Nathan said at last, breaking under Joiner’s gaze.

‘And?’ he said, pressing him for more.

‘He’s pulled some strings,’ – Nathan, still reluctant to give away his friend’s secrets, paused before continuing – ‘and redirected Darklight to Steadfast.’

Joiner didn’t show his emotions, but inside he seethed with rage. Darklight, the world’s leading private security firm, had huge resources and large numbers of personnel; an army for hire by the highest bidder, which in the current financial landscape meant only one organisation, the GMRC. In the past few years they had been used to spearhead the evacuation of South Africa and other southern African states, not to mention being employed by the Japanese and Chinese governments to protect key resources and projects pertinent to the global subterranean response to the looming disaster. Somehow Steiner had managed to requisition them under the radar; Joiner would have found out eventually, but by then it would have been too late; he knew he had to make counter preparations, and quickly.

Joiner, still distracted by the news, refocused on Bryant. ‘What else?’

‘That’s it, unless you count the fact that he’s very tired at the moment,’ Nathan said, sounding concerned.

‘How caring of you,’ Joiner said with a sneer. ‘Now get out of my sight, but don’t go too far; I might have need of you again.’

After Bryant had scuttled off, Joiner picked up his phone to contact one of the Joint Chiefs. ‘General, we have an imminent Darklight infestation at Steadfast; you know what to do—’ he said, and then promptly hung up. Pleased with the work he’d completed in such a short time, Joiner decided he’d have a swim in the plush Principal Hotel pool and then take afternoon tea, but he had one more quick call to make first. He pressed his intercom button. ‘Operator, put me through to a Colonel Samson.’

♦

Colonel Samson, dressed in civilian clothing, tapped his fingers in impatience as he waited at a private table in one of Steadfast’s swanky hotels. Some spook had requested his presence. It seemed this person had substantial clout within the military as, soon after Samson had refused to meet the man, a call had come through from one of his superiors ordering him to go and give the man a fair hearing.

Wanting to be anywhere else but there, Samson continued to wait, and a little while later a thin, aging man in a suit came and sat down opposite him. A waiter approached and the newcomer ordered some fancy wine, which he then had poured for them both. Samson would have preferred a beer; he sloshed down the wine in a few gulps as the other man watched him, sipping his own drink in slow deliberation.

‘I hear you are a man not to be trifled with,’ the spy said to him, ‘and that you don’t care for civilian leadership.’

‘You have good hearing,’ Samson said, bored out of his mind, ‘and who the fuck are you?’

‘I’m someone not to be
fucked
with.’ The man handed him a card.

MALCOLM JOINER

Principal Director of National

& GMRC Intelligence

‘So you’re some bigwig,’ Samson said. ‘What do you want with me?’ He wasn’t impressed by cards, hotels or titles.

‘I’m just introducing myself. I heard about your situation with Professor Steiner and I thought I would offer you my support.’

‘I don’t need it,’

‘You may have been told by your superiors that Steiner is no longer in full control of the military; however, recently a situation has arisen that may prove … interesting. Have you heard of Darklight?’

‘The security firm?’ Samson said.

‘The same. It seems our beloved professor is bringing them into Steadfast. This is going to cause some problems in the chain of command. I just want to make sure that you are aware that you may be vulnerable to reassignment if Steiner gets his way and that I can protect you.’

‘I don’t need protecting,’ Samson said with a snarl.

‘Of course not, what I meant was that I can prevent your transfer.’

‘And why would you do that?’ Samson looked at the intelligence director suspiciously.

‘I may need your help at a certain point and if I scratch your back—’

‘I’ll do what I want, when I want,’ Samson told him. ‘If you need something that requires my skills we can speak again.’

‘Very well,’ Joiner said, unmoved by the colonel’s animosity, ‘that’s good enough for me.’

‘It’ll have to be,’ Samson said, and got up and left.

♦

Richard Goodwin looked on as the impact countdown timer sank below ten days, signalling the initiation of the Final Protocols. In the Command Centre and around the whole of U.S.S.B. Steadfast EMERGCON (emergency readiness condition) and DEFCON (defence readiness condition) threat alert levels where displayed via screens and signs. The largest readiness display had been built onto the outside of the Command Centre building itself; at some forty feet in height, this provided a real-time visual indicator of current standings to passers-by and for workers in the vicinity.