Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) (15 page)

James
had found a backdoor into the compounds electronic surveillance
system. He hadn't used it before because of the risk of exposure, but
now that things were underway he felt like the connection would go
unnoticed long enough for the operation to begin. They were thankful
that the surveillance system had been upgraded to modern computer
controlled standards, even if the rest of the facility hadn't.

The
Shi brothers had on the heaviest of the armor, a full body suit that
protected everything except the joints. Next to them James and Dawn
stood wearing lighter full body armor. While it wouldn't stop a round
from a high powered rifle like the other, it was enough to stop the
handgun rounds most of the guards would be equipped with. Finally,
Dawn's sister followed up the rear. She was wearing the same heavy
armor as the front men, since it was possible that she would take a
few rounds from the few guards that did carry high powered rifles.
She would be watching the rear as the bottom piece of the 'sandwich'
formation they were using.

They
all had FN P90 personal weapons and Dawn had loaded herself down with
the extra ammo in case they needed it. James had to haul almost a
hundred pounds of computer equipment to their destination so he
couldn't carry any extra ammo. The leading and following members had
to worry about being shot, and have a cartridge full of ammo go off
on them wouldn't be the most pleasant thing, so they couldn't carry
much beyond their initial cartridges.

As it
was they were all waiting on the ready signal from the overseer.
Since he had funded everything they were to follow his orders and, as
much as they wanted to get the operation on, he hadn't given the go
ahead. He wouldn't say why though, so they were left waiting for his
okay. In the end they had waited well past their noon window and it
was now midnight.

"Come
in strike force." came the mans voice over their headsets.

"This
is strike force." Dawn replied.

"We're
ready. Begin the op at your discretion."

"Roger.
We're leaving the van now. We'll be in position in 5."

"Roger
that strike force."

With
that all of them silently left the vehicle. They went to the small
tree covered section near the road to the base and prepared and
double checked their weapons. After they did Dawn checked in with the
overseer before beginning. With his permission, all hell broke lose.

The 2
human giant front men opened fire from the shadows, killing the 2
guards at the entrance to the compound before they knew what was
happening. The rest of the guard was quick to respond to the gunfire
but they fell in short order as well. They hadn't seen the direction
of the gunfire so they had no clue where to look and were felled
without ever finding the strike team.

After
that the team left their hiding spot and went toward the gate. On the
way they met no resistance. Dawn ducked inside the guard shelter and
pressed a button. The gate outside began to open and the rest of the
team tensed up. Dawn left a small glob of plastic explosive on the
button and rejoined her position with the squad.

They
went through the open gate and waited just on the other side for it
to close. After it did Dawn grabbed her transmitter and pressed a
button. The guard shelter behind them exploded in a shower of debris,
effectively locking the gate behind them and preventing anyone from
easily entering.

After
that they went to the door. They all took up positions on one side
and Frank stuck his head around the corner. There was a long hall
with no splits. At the end was a stairwell headed down. It was
exactly as they had been told by the spy the overseer had payed.

Most
importantly, there were no people waiting on the other side. Frank
waved them all in as he turned the corner and stepped through. The
rest of the team followed him in and James got to work on the door
problem.

He
looked at the mechanism and found that the repair would be simple.
But it would take a small amount of time to implement and he would
need Franks help.

"Need
some C4 over here. 1 ounce." James told Dawn. She grabbed a
piece of it for him and inserted a detonator. He placed it inside the
mechanism carefully and stuck it to the side of a piece of hydraulic
support.

"Back
up now." Dawn said and they backed up and out of the direct line
of sight of the explosive. Dawn pressed the transmitter button and
the C4 blew with a tiny bang. As soon as it did, the entire shifted
down slightly but was otherwise unmoved.

James
moved back to the door and ducked outside, with Dawn following him.
As they did they heard gunfire start inside. James took another piece
of C4, a much larger brick, and placed it on the door handle. Dawn
placed a detonator inside and they ducked back to the other side of
the door.

"Frank,
come help with this door. We need to close it." James said.
Frank didn't respond but after a moment the gunfire from him ceased.
He went over and grabbed the door handle. Together with James'
guidance he manhandled the door into place. James turned the handle
on the door and listened as the arms clicked into place.

After
they did he pointed at dawn and she pressed the button on her
transmitter. There was a muffled thump as the C4 detonated and
destroyed the outer handle. With it gone the only way to open the
door was on the inside.

After
that they began to descend the stairs. On the way down 5 more people
tried to stop them. They were all gunned down by the efficient strike
team, but Frank would have a number of large bruises on his chest the
following morning from the 2 who were carrying their own P90s.

They
made their way through the corridors to the elevator shaft. They had
planned on taking the doors initially but now that they were half a
day behind their initial window they knew the elevator would be the
better bet if they could get it working. It was less likely to be
occupied at this time of night.

James
pried off the panel. Once inside he began cutting and manipulating
wires. After a long few minutes he managed to call the elevator to
their floor.

Once
it arrived Frank stood on one side with the rest of the group and the
older Shi brother stood on the other side. When the door opened they
both swung around and opened fire into the elevator. After they
finished they stepped in and rest of the team followed them.

Inside
they found a very large and very wide freight elevator. The sides
offered plenty of cover from the open doors and would be very handy
when they reached their destination. James kicked the bodies of the 7
men who had been on the elevator out of the way and they stepped in,
which none of them were expecting. Apparently they had been wrong
about the elevator being unoccupied. Once inside Dawn keyed the
bottom floor of the elevator and it began to descend slowly.

Once
it reached the bottom the team separated onto either side of the
elevator for cover. As soon as the doors opened a hell storm of
gunfire entered the elevator. The high powered rounds impacted the
far wall in a deadly rain torrent for 3 entire minutes straight
before the men firing ran low on ammo.

The
team waited patiently hiding behind their cover until the enemy ran
out of bullets and then Frank ducked around the corner. He let off 5
quick bursts from his gun, downing the entire compliment of attackers
before they could open fire. He'd caught them changing their
cartridges on their weapons and they'd been unable to respond.

They
stepped off the elevator and made their way down the corridoor
unimpeded to the door to the control room. As they'd suspected they
found the door to be sealed. And as solid as it should be. So, Dawn
grabbed her C4.

##########

"Status report! Now!" yelled a man in a decorated military
uniform.

"We're not sure sir! Our surveillance is down!" replied a
man sitting at a very modern looking computer.

Just then they heard a very loud bang from the wall next to the main
door.

"They're trying to blast their way through the wall!"
yelled another man from the side. At that everyone in the room drew
their weapons and stood back from the wall. After a few more bangs
the wall finally cracked and crumbled.

As soon as the first moving object was visible the men began firing
at it. Unfortunately for them the object wasn't a human but a
flashbang grenade. The grenade went off in mid air and disoriented
the men in the room. A moment later the team stepped into the room
and opened fire, killing everyone inside before they could respond to
the attack.

A few moments later the control room had been secured. The overseer
informed them of the locations of the remaining soldiers and they
quickly scoured the base and finished them all off.

By the time the first of the outside authorities reached the base the
entire thing had been taken over and was now under the control of the
strike team. While James set about getting into the old computer
systems Dawn and Frank went off to search the base for any hidden
entrances that the outside forces could use to enter the base
unannounced.

##########

"Sir, we have a problem." said a man in a black uniform
with black sunglasses. Before him sat the President of the United
States of America in his chair in the oval office.

"What kind of problem?" the man asked.

"We've just received numerous reports that our nuclear facility
in Arizona is under attack. A terrorist organization has just taken
control of the largest nuclear cache in the country." the man
said as stoically as possible.

"A problem?" the President asked rhetorically. "A
problem is what happens when your daughters boyfriend is found dead
under mysterious circumstances after impregnating her. The take over
a nuclear launch facility is a disaster!" the President said as
he stood up and leaned over his desk, glaring at the secret
serviceman in front of him.

"Get everyone on the line now. I'll be in the
bunker." the President added as he gathered up his files from
his desk.

Chapter 20:

Prison

Max was laying in bed in her cell trying to sleep. Not that she could
even though the schedule of the prison mandated it. She hadn't been
able to sleep since last week when she'd been placed there by the
government.

She'd
betrayed Milia. All Milia had wanted was a good life. Saving people
and being a hero had been her dream since she'd been 'born', if born
was even the correct word. And now she was going to have to live out
the rest of her life in prison, confined and restrained against her
will. Max deserved to be there, Milia didn't.

Since
the day they'd been incarcerated Milia hadn't said a word.
Occasionally Max could hear Milia silently sobbing, but if she made
any mention of it Milia would just retreat away from her without a
word.

Max
turned over onto her side and a few tears streamed from her eyes. She
wished to give Milia a chance to be free. But she couldn't any more.
Even if Max managed to escape, which she could do quite easily,
neither one would ever be able to have a life. They would be wanted
fugitives with their face plastered on every television screen,
phone, wall, and pole within the country. Short of reconstructive
surgery, they'd never be able to live any kind of real life if they
were on the run. And they wouldn't be able to afford such surgery
while on the run.

They
were stuck where they were, with no chance to ever do anything about
it.

Suddenly
the buzzer rang throughout the prison. Max knew the signal by heart
after only a few days. It was now breakfast time.

Max
stood up from her bed. By virtue of luck, Max was in a cell by
herself. Though there were 3 other beds in the cell, so Max knew they
could be filled at any time. After taking a moment to stretch,
something Em had demanded she do, Max finally changed her clothes.
Not that it was much because they always wore orange jumpsuits, but
at least they were clean.

After
taking a few more moments to herself, Max left the cell and went to
the main floor where the food court was. She thought about eating,
but she wasn't very hungry. Truthfully she didn't even want to leave
her cell, but she found out the hard way that if she didn't, the
guards would quite literally beat her out of the cell.

As Max
was deciding where to sit she saw Em waving at her from across the
floor. Deciding cheery company was better than none, Max went over
and sat down gingerly.

"Hey
sweetie." Em said. "You gonna eat anything today?"

"Nah,
I'm not hungry." Max replied.

"You
sure?" Em asked. "This is the third morning you've gone
without breakfast."

"Yeah
I'm fine."

"Well
will you at least tell me what's wrong?"

"I
don't want to talk."

"Then
I'll go get you breakfast." Em said as she began to stand.

"No
don't. I don't want anything." Max said as she looked up at the
woman.

"Then
you'll tell me what's on your mind." Em said with a smirk. Max
grimaced as Em sat back down and smiled at her.

"Fine."
Max relented, already knowing where the woman was planning to go with
the argument. Max wondered where to begin her story, but as she
thought about it she felt her voice catch in her throat. She wanted
to talk about it very badly, but she felt like she was choking just
thinking about it.

Em sat
there staring at her with those bright eyes, expectantly awaiting an
answer. As Max looked into them she felt that she could trust Em, but
couldn't explain why. Finally Max decided that had to tell Em.
Somehow that made the knot in her throat go away and she felt like
she'd finally be able to speak.