Extinction (33 page)

General David Tomkin sat in the luxurious executive helicopter, peering out of the windows as the pilot started to spool up the rotor blades, readying the engines for take-off.

The helicopter landing pad was situated in the massive courtyard that occupied the centre of the DoD complex, an otherwise green space where employees came for some peaceful reflection. Tomkin had always thought it rather unfortunate that it should also be the site chosen for the helipad, the near deafening noise of the regular arrivals and departures in diametrical opposition to the stated aims of the courtyard.

But at least it was convenient, Tomkin reflected. It was a hell of a lot better than driving across town, anyway.

From the high pitch of the engines, Tomkin knew the helicopter was about to take off, and he settled down to relax for the flight. As he did so, he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket, surprised when he saw there were six missed calls, four from Anderson and two from DoD security.
What the hell?

He must have missed the phone ringing due to the noise of the helicopter. He moved his thumb to the keypad to call Anderson, when he saw two uniformed generals running across the courtyard towards his helicopter.

Damn, how urgent was this?
Two
generals? He sighed, and put his phone away, calling for the pilot not to take off. He reached forward to open the door when he saw another helicopter coming in to land, dangerously close to his own. This second chopper wasn’t even going for the helipad but was tearing up the neatly trimmed lawn to the side. What the hell was going on?

Tomkin levered the door open to let the two generals come aboard.

He saw their faces then; furtive, scared, looking with horror at the other chopper. A man and a woman.
No
. It couldn’t be.

Alyssa Durham pulled a handgun from underneath her uniform and aimed it at Tomkin’s heart. ‘Let’s get out of here, General. Now.’

From his own helicopter Anderson saw the two uniformed officers approach Tomkin’s chopper and cursed. He could see from here that the uniforms were ill-fitting. Couldn’t Tomkin see that too?

But Anderson knew what had happened – during a search of the general’s office, two empty suit hangers had been found in the wardrobe. And they weren’t leaving via one of the protected exits; theoretically, in the courtyard they were still inside the building. It was no surprise they hadn’t been caught.

But what was their plan now? And what were they going to do with Tomkin? There was a 9mm pistol missing from the gun cabinet in Tomkin’s office too, a fact that definitely boded ill for the general.

Anderson couldn’t let that happen, and he wrenched the chopper door open before it had even fully set down on the lawn.

‘I suppose I should have recognized my own uniforms,’ Tomkin said with a self-deprecating sigh, as the helicopter lifted off into the air. ‘The gun’s not loaded, by the way.’

‘Good try,’ Alyssa replied immediately. ‘But even if I hadn’t checked it – which I have – there’s no way we’d be flying now if it was empty.’

Tomkin smiled. ‘Good,’ he said, as if rewarding a clever student. ‘You’re two very impressive people, I’ll give you that. But what now? What are you going to do with me?’

‘I’m going to make you an offer,’ Alyssa replied, as Jack watched the courtyard below. ‘We have enough evidence to bury you, John Jeffries, and everyone else associated with this sick project. Call it off, and we’ll not go public with it.’

‘And if I refuse?’ Tomkin asked with amusement.

‘Then I’ll kill you,’ Alyssa said with a straight face. ‘One life for many.’

Alyssa heard Jack gasp, and then she felt the chopper lurch as if it had been hit by a huge blunt instrument, or as if it had been weighed down on one side suddenly.

‘Jack,’ Alyssa said, ‘what is it?’

‘Anderson,’ Jack said in utter disbelief.

Tomkin’s chopper was already in the air when Anderson made the jump, just managing to catch hold of one of the long metal skids that ran down underneath both sides of the chopper.

His legs dangling freely in the air below as the chopper increased its altitude, the DoD headquarters smaller and smaller beneath him, Anderson forced himself to concentrate, pulling himself upwards with all his strength until his body lay against the skid.

Now all he had to do was get into the aircraft.

All three passengers jumped out of the way of the door as Anderson started firing into the metal skin of the helicopter.

Alyssa tried to keep control of what she was doing, but the impact of the pistol rounds was terrifying and before she knew it, Anderson had pulled the door open and squeezed himself through into the cabin.

Keeping his pistol up and aimed, he shut the door behind him, blocking out the shrieking wind and allowing the pilot to stabilize the aircraft.

Tomkin managed to keep his focus better than Alyssa. His military training and years of operational experience had not been totally lost during his years behind a desk. He used the distraction of Anderson’s entry to snatch the gun from Alyssa’s grasp. In the same fluid action he spun her round, his arm round her neck in a choke hold as he pressed the steel barrel against her temple.

‘Who’s got the flash drive?’ Tomkin asked. When there was no reply, he drove the barrel further into Alyssa’s temple, tightening his hold round her neck. ‘If you don’t tell me, we’ll just shoot you both and search your dead bodies.’

Alyssa saw Anderson raise an eyebrow, and realized in horror that he evidently thought that this was a better idea than asking them. She had to barter for time somehow, before they were both killed.

‘We’ve both got drives,’ she said quickly, to gain precious seconds. Maybe they could distract one of them and get one of the guns back.

But who was she kidding? These were both special forces officers, trained to kill like Jack was trained to use computers. It was what they did for a living. She sagged further into Tomkin’s grasp, a feeling of hopelessness pervading her.

Tomkin pushed Alyssa roughly across the leather-lined cabin, and she landed on a couch next to Jack. ‘Give them to us,’ Tomkin said, his gun still trained on her.

Alyssa looked at Jack and shrugged her shoulders. What else could they do? ‘We don’t just have the evidence on the drives,’ Jack said with more confidence than Alyssa could muster.

‘I don’t believe him,’ Anderson said to Tomkin.

Tomkin nodded. ‘I don’t believe you either,’ he said to Jack. ‘So you better show us those drives before you get yourselves shot.’

Jack held up his hands, palms out. ‘It’s true, I swear. I encoded it with the virus, back in your office. The evidence is living there now, trapped in the DoD system. Unless you permanently sever your computers from the outside world, the evidence will be on the web the moment the system goes back online.’

Alyssa saw Tomkin and Anderson exchange uneasy glances, clearly unsure if Jack was telling the truth. Like herself, they probably didn’t even know if such a thing was possible. She assumed it wasn’t, though, because Jack hadn’t done what he was saying. But it was a great bluff simply because it could be true.

The cabin was tense for several long, drawn-out seconds. Tomkin and Anderson exchanged looks again, clearly wanting to discuss the matter but unwilling to do so in front of them.

Alyssa could feel beads of sweat running down her forehead. Anderson clearly wanted to shoot them, but what about Tomkin?

The heavy silence was broken by the shrill ringtone of Tomkin’s phone, and Alyssa was convinced Anderson’s finger was a half-pound’s pressure away from firing at the sound of it.

Keeping his gun steady and his eyes on Alyssa, Tomkin reached into his pocket and answered the call. ‘Tomkin,’ he said, before listening with what appeared to be mounting horror. ‘Are you sure?’ he asked, clearly stunned. ‘How? . . . When? . . . OK. Colonel Anderson and I are on our way up there right now. I’ll take control of the situation when we get there. What assets do we have nearby? . . . You’re joking? . . . OK. Keep me posted.’

Tomkin hung up, shaken to his core but his gun still up and aimed.

‘Sir?’ Anderson asked, concerned. ‘What’s going on?’

Tomkin didn’t respond.

‘Sir?’ Anderson repeated.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘It looks like the HIRP base has been penetrated. Taken over.’ He shook his head in disbelief, and Alyssa thought she could almost see tears in his eyes. ‘The unthinkable has happened,’ he announced. ‘Spectrum Nine has fallen into the hands of the enemy.’

U
MBEBE LOOKED GRAVELY
into the camcorder held by one of his loyal followers, ensconced now in the main control room of the Ionospheric Research Array. The video of his speech – as well as a visual tour of the captured facility to prove his words – would be put out on the web, and would be picked up by news agencies around the world in seconds. Within the hour, Umbebe was confident that almost every man, woman and child on the globe would know about it.

The assault had gone perfectly, and his team of crack international commandos had met little resistance. The head of base security, Colonel Anderson, wasn’t even there to help organize a cohesive defence, and so the facility fell with ease – almost as if it was meant to be, Umbebe had mused as he received the word from his team leaders that the complex was secure.

But now was the time for his final message to the world, and he settled himself. His entire life had led him to this single point, and he truly believed that it was his destiny. What he wanted to achieve today was no less than the desire of the universe itself.

‘Extinction,’ Umbebe intoned in his deeply melodious voice, ‘is inevitable. It always has been, ever since the dawn of time. It is the very nature of things.

‘There have been seven such extinction events over the course of our planet’s history, great upheavals which have resulted in catastrophic loss of life. My own order has charted these events with scientific rigour over the past thousand years, and we have discerned a pattern amidst the apparent chaos. It shows that the world is a living organism, expanding and contracting. Sometimes life on this planet explodes and we are faced with a multitude of new and incredibly diverse species; at other times, life is expunged. Think of it like a lung. What happens if air keeps filling the lung? It cannot expand forever, and without contraction, the organism will die.

‘This is what is happening on our planet. We are continually expanding, with no checks and balances. We are going to kill the organism before long.

‘Believe me, my brothers and sisters around the world, we are about to enter a very necessary period of contraction. Just as our order’s scientists have predicted, our time here on earth is at an end. We have pushed it out as far as we can with our technological perversion of the environment, but we cannot let it continue any longer. The time has come for the great sacrifice, which we must make together.

‘This broadcast comes to you from a government installation known as the High-frequency Ionospheric Research Project, based up near the Arctic Circle. The communications and navigation technology it purports to research is merely a cover. The real purpose of this facility is something called Spectrum Nine.

‘Spectrum Nine is what has been causing the strange phenomena you have been experiencing in recent weeks, aberrant behaviour across the natural world. Even the moving statue was but a side effect of the weapon’s testing process. It is a weapon of truly epic proportions. Evidence of its power is came a few days ago when that small island was completely destroyed.’

Umbebe paused, to let his words sink in. ‘Yes, brothers and sisters, Spectrum Nine destroyed that island. And it can do much more than that. By manipulating sound waves within the recently discovered, so-called ninth spectrum, whoever controls the weapon can control the weather. And whoever controls the weather can create disaster.’ Umbebe raised his arms to the camera, hands wide open as if he was conjuring the disasters himself. ‘Earthquakes, tidal waves, typhoons, volcanic explosions, floods, storms, death and destruction on an unimaginable scale – Spectrum Nine can create it all.

‘And now, my brothers and sisters, the weapon is in the hands of the Order of Planetary Renewal. We attacked the facility earlier today, and have complete control of the entire system. Some of you may wonder what we are after; in other words, what do we want? What will make us refrain from using the device? My answer to you all is,
nothing
. There is nothing that will stop us. We did not capture the weapon to negotiate. We captured the weapon in order to use it. And use it we will.

‘We will unleash Spectrum Nine, and the result will be the annihilation of life on earth as we presently know it. This must now be accepted as cold, hard fact.

‘I make this broadcast not to terrify, but to inform. There is no going back, nothing that can be done to save you. What happens after the weapon has been unleashed is up to fate. Will humanity survive, perhaps in small isolated pockets? It is possible, of course. Unlikely, but possible. Who knows how the planet will restructure itself after its cleansing? But cleanse it we must,’ Umbebe said forcefully. ‘And we, the true faithful of the Order of Planetary Renewal, are proud to be the instrument of the universe’s will.

‘I give you notice so that you may ready yourselves. The road will not be easy, but accept it you must. Six hours from now, the world as you know it will come to an end.’

The four passengers watched Umbebe’s video together in the helicopter’s cabin, their differences momentarily forgotten.

It was Anderson who recovered his composure first. ‘It doesn’t matter any more anyway,’ he said. ‘We might as well kill them now. Two less witnesses when this comes to court.’ He raised his gun towards Alyssa and Jack.

‘He’s right in a way,’ Tomkin agreed. ‘Whatever evidence you have on you is moot now anyway. Our involvement will be front-page news by tomorrow. So fewer witnesses are a good thing.’

‘If there
is
a tomorrow,’ Jack shot back. ‘What was the answer when you asked about available assets on the phone earlier?’ Jack saw the look on Tomkin’s face and nodded his head. ‘Exactly. There
are
no assets available, because everyone’s tied up with the civil unrest. So why don’t you tell us your plans for recapturing the base?’