Dulce Base (The Dulce Files Book 1) (19 page)

“She’s moving!” Turn and Billy both shouted.

“Ugh!” Mark and Andy both grunted at the same time, and the door came open.

There were no aliens around them now, the port area completely burned out, especially the charred and blackened area around the HUB doors.

“Damn, sir – you really blew the hell out of them!” Billy laughed.

Mark looked over at the charred doors as he hopped out of the bruised and battered X-22. They were completely gone, the two Hellfire rockets having obliterated them as much as three-feet-thick steel could be obliterated. The remnants hung their like two sad window shutters after a particularly bad storm.

“Cooked their gooses, too,” Andy laughed.  “There ain’t an alien in sight!”

Mark looked around and saw he was right. The whole floor of the port was now clear, with just the red flashing security lights moving. Even the desert to the rear was visible to them, the wind kicking up small swirls of sand and dust.  His attention was ripped back to the entry port when a clicking sound came.  He and the others looked over to see the door to the command facility opening, Jerry gingerly sticking his head out the door.

“Jerry!” Billy shouted, and he smiled further when Aaron and Johnny came out next.

“Shit, we thought you guys were toast!” he said, throwing open the door, though keeping his machine gun up.

“It’s clear…or at least that’s what it looks like,” Mark said to him as he started to walk from the X-22 and back across the floor.  The others inside the command facility started to come out as well, and within moments the seven men were standing there, guns in hand, as they figured out the next move.

“Listen up, men,” Mark said, “we could stand here and cry over spilled milk and recap what’s happened so far, or we can just get our asses through those doors and blow as many more aliens to hell in the twenty-five minutes or so of this mission we’ve got left.”

There were several cocked-eyebrows and slight smiles to that, but not a man said a word.  Mark frowned.

“Fuck it – I’m going in, and if any of you want to follow, so be it.”

He took off toward the HUB doors, or what was left of them. The others looked at one another, and then with an Oorah from Jerry, they fell in behind their commander.

~~~

On the other edge of the port floor, Eddie ran forward and ducked under the UFO, some kind of fighter craft, by the look of it.

“There’s no one here!” Ronnie laughed behind him, walking fully upright, Stan at his side.

“You want to push those Grays?” Eddie scoffed. “Who knows how many could still be hiding in here.”

“After the blast the Dutchman’s son gave those doors?” Stan laughed.  “C’mon, Eddie – get your head on straight.”

Eddie frowned as the two astronaut-engineers reached him, but slowly stood up as well.

“So can you get ‘er airborne?” Stan asked, thumping the UFO with his fist.

“If I can get ‘er open,” Eddie replied with a smile.”

“Well, grab on right there,” Ronnie said, pointing out some grooves under the craft’s cockpit area.

The thing looked like a triangle with a small, glass-enclosed cockpit area nestled down into it’s body, although it wasn’t glass, but something else. Eddie had seen it at Los Alamos before and knew that they were working on creating something similar using the same alien technology, it was just that they weren’t quite there yet. And the craft wasn’t completely a mystery to him, either. It looked to be about the same make and mode – how else would you describe it, Eddie always explained to anyone that asked – and that meant he could fly it.

“One…two…three!” Eddie said, and together the three men pulled up, straining against the thing until the ‘glass’ top popped-open.

“Same one?” Ronnie asked once they’d caught their breath and rubbed their fingers, and as if reading his friend’s thoughts.

Eddie nodded, biting his thumb as he stared at the thing and ran through the myriad combinations in his head. “Same one we’ve been testing since ’56 and the Lake Oswego Incident.”

Ronnie and Stan both nodded. No one needed to explain what the Lake Oswego Incident was.

“You sure this is really a good idea?” Stan asked next. “I mean, this wasn’t part–”

“Watching Paul and Lewie die back there wasn’t part of the plan either,” Eddie shot back. Stan backed off, and Eddie saw that he’d come on too strong.  “Listen, I can–”

“I know,” Stan said, and clapped him on the shoulder.

“Get up there,” Ronnie said next, and Eddie nodded before getting into the UFO. The men closed the UFO fighter craft’s top and then Eddie started to work the controls.

“Back up,” Stan said, pulling Ronnie back a bit. 

The two men then stood back and stared as Eddie got the thing fired up. There was no sound, just a faint, reddish glow emanating from under it. Then, faster than a blink of an eye it seemed, the craft shot up three feet. 

“Whoa!” both men said, and then the craft spun around and shot off into the desert night.

36 – Changing Course

Dulce Tunnels (Level 2)

Thursday, May 24, 1979

The men of CAT-3 ran on, over the large cement floor that was marked off with street lines. It was the main highway into and out of the base…for humans that is. Already they’d left the port area and blasted-out HUB doors way behind. The ceilings were now twenty-five feet above them and the first ramp leading down to Level 2 was just ahead. Mark hit it first, and didn’t look back to see if any of his men had followed him, though all had. There was Andy and Billy keeping pace, though staying just at his heels. Behind them ran Aaron, Jerry and Johnny. And all six of the men were staying as close to Turn as they could. For Turn that was both a source of pride and one of frustration. It’s true that he wanted to use his super soldier status to protect the men, but he also wanted to use his cybernetic legs to shoot ahead of them, clearing the way of all dangers. It was a noble thought, and also a stupid one. That’s what he had to keep reminding himself as they ran on, his pencil-thin mustache beading with sweat more than usual.

BEEP-BEEP

The men stopped right at the same time Mark threw his hand up into the air in a fist, the sign for them to do so. He quickly reached down to the satellite radio in a leg pocket and got it out.

“Mark, orders have changed.”

The men could hear the Dutchman’s voice – Mark’s father – on the other end of the line. It was the older man’s tone, however, which really struck them all, and made them nervous.

“Go,” Mark said.

“CAT-2 has reported that the number of captives is in the range of 30,000–”

“My God!” Aaron gasped.

“–and there’s just no way we’re going to get them all out.”

“How many can we get?” Mark asked over the radio.

“Right now we’ve got as many as we can rushing to the underground platforms, to awaiting trains sent in from the other bases.”

“Where does that leave us?”

The men of CAT-3 stared at their commander in awe, and especially the calm he was displaying under pressure.

“In a good position to get as far into that base as possible, do the most damage as possible, and in the least amount of time possible.”

“And captives?”

“Save as many as you can – orders are to blow the base at the hour.”

“We read you, sir,” Mark said, then the father and son signed-off and the men were left standing on the circular vehicle ramp to Level 3, staring at one another and wondering what they’d do. Turn stepped forward.

“Sir,” he said to Mark, “I can move the fastest, I can–”

Mark shook his head and put up his hand. “No, Turn – we need you with us, always.” He looked to the others. “We all need to stay together, one false step or one side hallway and those Grays can have their way with you.”

Turn nodded, for he fully understood what was at stake if the men were left alone – he’d seen it firsthand in Montana.

“This is what we’ll do,” Mark said as he started down the ramp again, his machine gun held out in case something should jump out at them, “Level 4 is coming up, and it’s there that they do a lot of their experiments on humans…the ones they haven’t changed physically yet. Our chances of making this mission mean something lie there.”

“And Levels 5, 6 and 7?” Aaron asked.

Mark shook his head. “We’ll never make it down to Level 7 where the train platforms are – we were never supposed to. Levels 5 and 6 are Nightmare Hall and the Hall of Horrors. If Walter and Charlie can make even the slightest of dents in those terrible operations then we’ve also got something to crow about.”

“And if they don’t?” Jerry asked.

Mark gave him a hard look. “Then the actions we take in the next few minutes will mean so much more.”  He looked down at his watch, frowned, then met their eyes again. “We’ve got twenty minutes, gentlemen – when that time is up this base is blown, whether we’re topside or not.”

37 – Material Acquisition Team

Dulce Entrance (Level 1)

Thursday, May 24, 1979

“Get down!”

The special forces soldier began to look up but then training took over and he pulled his head back instead. Some kind of laser bullet or blast struck the steel and cement wall and sent fragments of it flying about.

“Watch it!” Stu shouted back at him, though with this time a shake of the head.

Stu watched him turn his attention back to his covering fire, and however many Grays and Reptilians were still pouring forth. The few men of the Material Acquisition Team were fanned-out about the first level of the base, strategically placing explosives, anticipating the pull-out and ensuring they’d damn-well be ready for it…and damn sure they’d not have to come back again. Stu was one securing explosives, and that time he just got a little too carried away. Vowing to not place them so close to the active fire areas, he turned around to head back toward the port.  Doing so, his eyes glanced down at the bits of wall that’d just been blown away. He cocked a brow and was about to turn away when something else caught his attention – a small panel set into the wall, something that looked like a compartment of some sort. Looking over to see Ronnie still firing away at some of the additional Reptilians that’d just arrived, Stu took the few steps to it and then bent down, prying his fingers around the edges. To his astonishment, the thing ‘popped’ right open, revealing that it was indeed a small compartment.  And inside was–

“What’s that?”

Stu turned about, his heart-skipping a beat.

“God – you scared me!” he said, seeing Stan standing there. 

Stan scoffed, but ignored the words and instead pointed down at the now-open compartment and the small metallic object sitting there.

“What the hell is that thing?”

Stu frowned. “If it’s what I think it is, then we’ll want to get it back to the port area and secure it as fast as possible.

He put the device under his jacket and then hurried past Stan, back toward the port.

~~~

“What the hell is it?” Ronnie asked, looking down at the small device. It was small, round and metallic and looked like a landmine of some sort, although much shinier and expensive. The metal looked to be steel but had a blue sheen to it. On the very top, the highest point on the small dome-shaped device, was an electronic display of some sort, red letters just like the movies.

“Here’s where it works,” Stu said, turning it over. “Best I can tell it’s a CED, kind of like a mini-nuke and a–”

“Whoa, doc…a nuke!”

“Take it easy, Ronnie,” Stan said, putting his hand on the astronaut’s shoulder, “let Stu here finish.”

“A Cell-Electrostatic-Disruption, or CED device, is a weapon that can be set to disrupt the cells of a living creature at a subatomic level, thus killing everything living in an area without doing much harm to any structures or equipment. It’s kind of like a mini-nuke and an electromagnetic pulse all rolled into one, though with a much, much lower area of impact, discharge, and area of effect,” Stu continued, giving Ronnie a sharp look on that last bit.

“What the hell’s all that mean in English, doc?” Ronnie said with a laugh.

“It’ll destroy every living thing in this base all the way to the deepest levels, even the ones we don’t know about,” Stu replied evenly, his eyes staring straight ahead at nothing, or perhaps at what such a cataclysmic event would look like.

“That’s what we need,” Ronnie said with a nod. He started forward and reached down to take the device from Stu. “How do we start it and where does it need to go?”

Stu jerked his arms, recoiling from Ronnie’s advancing hands. “
I’ll
take care of it.”

Ronnie gave him a hard look, but bit his lip and nodded, then looked back to the port.

“Saddle up,” he said, “we’re gonna be gettin’ the hell out of here real soon I have a feeling.”