Masked (18 page)

I didn’t say anything, but
continued to rinse the soap off. Was this a ploy to get information out of me?
Was he one of the spies?

Just as I thought those things, I
shrugged it off. Alex couldn’t be one of the spies. He was like my brother. It
made more sense the spy was someone who acted more distant to the group as a
whole, like Brian or James.

“No. Alex is a good guy. He’s not
the spy.”

“So what’s the plan? You know I’m
coming with you,” he added.

“No. You can’t,” I snipped sharply
without thinking about my words. I’d just basically admitted I was up to
something.

“So there is a plan,” he said. “I
may not have what you have with Sara, but she’s my friend too. I’m going with
you.”

“I don’t have a plan, at least
not yet,” I lied.

I couldn’t let Alex risk himself.
I was probably going to get caught once I was twenty feet on the other side of
the door. It was something I needed to do on my own. I probably had a better
chance on my own anyway. They’d be quicker to notice we were both missing than
just one of us.

I met Alex’s eyes. “You’re right.
I don’t trust a word they said. They know more than they let on.”

I wanted to convince him I was
going to act, to find Sara, but not to know it would be soon.

“There has to be another way out
of here, maybe through the duct work?”

“We’ll figure something out.
We’ll get to her,” Alex reassured.

I turned off the water and
grabbed my towel. “Thanks man. Let’s talk more later.”

I left the bathroom and walked
back into the sleeping quarters. James and Brian were both dressing down and
preparing to head into the shower. I couldn’t look at either of them. At least
one of them was a traitor to the rest of us. I had to suppress the disgust I felt.

“She’ll be okay,” Brian said
somberly as he passed by to go into the bathroom.

“I’m sure their medical team is
top notch. She’s in good hands,” James tried to reassure me.

I remained quiet.

“I was talking with Rachael and
Emily and we all agreed if we don’t hear any news by tomorrow we’ll all stand
together to insist we be informed. We think if we present a united front, they can’t
keep us in the dark.”

“Thanks,” I said.

His words weren’t very reassuring
since he was possibly a spy. If I failed, I could only count on Alex for sure
to try and help her.

That morning, over breakfast no
one said anything. Everyone just silently picked at their food. A few hours
prior, I would have considered all of the people at the table my friends, I
would even say family. I didn’t understand what was really going on, why we were
really there. Whatever the truth was, we’d been lied to and I was worried every
innocent life at that table was in jeopardy. I wish I knew who to trust, who I
could have explained everything I knew and thought to. I wish the well-being of
all my true friends at that table could have been considered. There was no
time. I could either try to help Sara or them. I chose Sara.

I tried to convince myself if I
made it out with Sara, I would be back for everyone else. I was just lying to
myself though. The whole thing was a long shot. If I was able to pull it off, I
had the feeling there wouldn’t be anyone left to come back to help. I had the strong
impression whatever the agenda of the deceivers was; it wouldn’t be easily
thwarted more than once. The truth was, even without my feelings for Sara, it was
a choice of waiting around to probably be killed or die trying to help Sara. I
had to try.

Promptly at 7:30 as instructed,
we met in one of the classrooms located off to the side of the main training
hall. Batton and Matthew were there waiting for us. During that first session
of the morning, they took us through different conflict scenarios and tactics
to overcome each scenario. This session was focused on maneuvering undetected
through a conflict zone using the PTD. When we had these types of tactical
sessions, they usually started with a classroom presentation and then actual
drills using the equipment with simulated scenarios.

There was no mention of Sara or
anything that had happened a few hours earlier, but it was the only thing on my
mind. During the presentation, which was mostly handled by Matthew, I noticed
Batton looking at me several times. There was no expression to his face when he
did, but there never was. I thought about trying to read them again but decided
against it. Batton was sure to notice my focus if I did. I needed to get out
soon. I couldn’t risk giving them any indication of what I was about to do.

After the hour long classroom
session, Matthew issued the PTD equipment. Once everyone’s equipment was on and
activated, we were released to meet back ten minutes later in the main hall. This
time was usually given to use the latrine, get a drink or whatever one needed
it for. As I followed the rest of our group out of the classroom, I noticed Batton
and Matthew stayed at the front of the classroom in discussion. They were most
likely discussing when to handle me. I’d anticipated the break. It was my
chance to make my move. There shouldn’t be anyone in the training hall yet and
I’d have at least the ten minutes before anyone would be suspicious of my
absence.

I made sure I was the last one
out of the classroom. Emily and Rachael were carrying on a conversation ahead
of me, walking towards their barracks. Alex and Brian looked like they were
heading towards our barracks. James turned into the latrine just a short
distance from the classroom. That is where I was headed as well.

I followed James into the
latrine. He was already standing in front of one of the urinals. I headed to
the stall in the far corner. James looked up and nodded. I returned the nod without
a word and then entered the stall.

Once in the stall, I didn’t waste
any time. The back wall of the latrine was shared with the main hall. The plan
was to jump into the main hall and then dash to the large doors at the other
end. I needed to do it all as quickly as I could. There was no way to know when
anyone would arrive in the main hall. I activated the PTD control and instantly
appeared in the other room.

It was good James saw me enter
the stall. When I didn’t turn up after the ten minutes was up he’d say where he
saw me. Hopefully, they’d assume I just needed some extra time to finish and
wouldn’t come looking for me immediately.

The space I jumped into was on
the opposite end of the large room from the door. I first looked to see I was
alone. I was. I raced across the hall to the door. The dash only took seconds.
I checked the PTD to ensure I had it set at a distance of twenty feet. It was, so
I made the jump.

For all the time spent in our
small section of the HUB, the large steel door was the sentinel that prevented access
to the outside. The door represented everything we didn’t know about ourselves
and the organization we’d become a part of. What I’d expected on the other side,
was not at all what I found. The armed guards and other high-tech security
measures I’d envisioned were probably references to movies I didn’t remember
seeing but could draw vague details from. All I found on the other side of the
door when I appeared was an empty hall.

The dimly lit corridor revealed
dark metal rounded walls, twenty-five feet in diameter. The lights were spaced
every five feet and set in the top of the tube like passageway. It was dead
quiet.

Ahead of me I saw the passage go
on for some distance and then turn. There were no guards in sight or any signs
of additional security measures from where I stood. Not having much time, I
moved swiftly but cautiously down the corridor.

I approached two grey doors
positioned opposite from each other on either side of the passage and there
were no markings or alphanumeric sequences to identify either of them. On the
unlikely chance there was something I could use as a weapon behind one of them,
I turned each of the door levers to see if they were unlocked, not that I
expected to find weapons behind an open door. Both doors felt heavy and were
locked. I didn’t think I’d be able to apply enough force to open them and
didn’t have the time to jump into each to explore so I kept moving.

Slowly, I approached the left
turn in the passage. Inching up to the corner and peering around, I could see
more of the same for another hundred feet and another large door like the one leading
into the training hall. I still didn’t see anyone. As I continued towards the
door, which I guessed would enter into the main part of the HUB, I was wary of
anything that might reveal my presence. I looked at the PTD control interface, which
also functioned as a time piece. Five minutes had passed already since we were
dismissed from the classroom. I needed to pick up my pace.

I passed another two doors, just like
the two I’d previously looked at. I assumed they were locked as well and kept
moving. The corridor continued to remain quite, only my boots against the steel
floor provided any sound.

Since there were no apparent
security measures so far, I assumed whatever was in place for that section of
the HUB would be just outside the door I was moving towards. As I approached, I
saw a nine digit keypad just to the right of the door. I had no clue what the
pass code was and planned on jumping through to the other side.

I reset the PTD control interface
to a ten foot jump. I thought if there were guards just outside the door, I could
better defend myself the closer I was to the door when I appeared. Once set, I
activated the PTD control and jumped.

It turned out what I did was the
teleportation equivalent to jumping in place. I did phase out for an instant,
but popped back into the same place. That had never happened in any of our
training sessions, nor had anyone ever explained it could happen. I tried the
jump again, but with the same result. I blurted a few four letter words I
hadn’t realized I knew at the time in frustration.

There were only two explanations I
could think of, which of course I never considered in my extensive planning for
the suicide operation that morning. Either I had grabbed a faulty PTD or I was facing
some unseen security measure. Since the PTD had worked on the first door, the
latter must have been true. There was something blocking me from jumping
through the door. I didn’t know enough about the physics on how the device
worked but could imagine some sort of energy field in place on the other side
of the door, blocking the transmission of my matter into the next room. This
again was probably some forgotten reference to a science fiction movie I’d once
seen.

After such a short distance, I
was already stalled. I couldn’t even get out into the central section of the
HUB. My plan had failed and I was suddenly completely filled with despair.
There was a complete loss of the momentum I was in as I moved through the
unknown towards my goal. All hope was gone.

There were two soft beeping
sounds coming from the key pad before the red lights turned green. The doors
began to slide open. A couple of the same four letter words were expressed as I
panicked. I had no time to think, just to react. The door was just a few inches
apart and I tried to jump again. This time it worked. I appeared just on the
other side of the opening door, facing away from it.

In an instant, I spun around to
find I was standing only a couple of feet behind three people. Lt. Masters stood
center flanked by two guards. Facing the opening door they didn’t notice my
presence. Quickly, I looked in all directions for others. There was no one I
could see, but saw large pieces of equipment not too far away

The sound of the door opening was
just loud enough to overpower the sound of my dash to concealment behind the
equipment. They never noticed I was behind them. I looked up from my hiding
place to see the doors reveal the open passage. The three started into the
passage to the training facility.

Once the doors closed behind them,
everything was quiet again. I was in another corridor. The door back to the
training facility was directly in front of me and the corridor went to both my
left and right. There was still nobody I could hear or see.

I had expected to find … well
people. I had expected to have to fight my way to Sara. I had a close call,
really close, but there was no one anywhere nearby, at least anyone I could see.
It was just an empty corridor.

Based on my limited knowledge of
the facility, I knew I should have been in the central section of the HUB. Assuming
Marsters was actually showing us a diagram of the facility on the first day, the
corridor I was in had to be a part of the central section. I’d imagined a passage
from one side of the central structure to the other would take me straight through,
but realized maybe the central structure was surrounded by a corridor which
gave access to the HUB extremities.

I chose to go right. The distance
should have been the same in either direction, but based on the diagram, going right
took me past the data center and one of the living areas. That seemed a safer
option than the side that housed all of the research, equipment, weapons and the
exit. Logic suggested there was more security to the left.

I proceeded as quickly as I could
while trying to keep unbridled recklessness to a minimum. I was working against
a clock, but carelessness was sure to get me caught or killed. I was at the ten
minute mark and would start to be missed soon.

The corridor was brighter than
the previous one and quite a bit wider. Everything was the dull grey of steel
and the space was filled with a stale still coolness, at least twenty degrees
cooler than in the previous passage.

After walking for a few minutes I
came upon a set of doors positioned across from each other. The door to my
right was marked TC03 and the one to my left QA01. I considered each for a
moment and then TC03 began to open. In reaction, I grabbed hold of the handle
to the other door. When it didn’t move I activated the PTD and jumped behind
QA01.

The corridor behind door QA01 was
similar to the one that connected the main corridor to the training area, but
shorter. I could see another large door only forty feet ahead. I wasn’t sure if
I was seen, before I jumped. I didn’t know if I should proceed or wait. I reset
the PTD to a twenty foot distance and watched the door I had just entered. After
a few seconds there was a soft beep and it started to open. I made two quick
jumps and was behind door number two before the door to the main corridor was completely
open.

Now I saw what looked like an
elevator and yet another more narrow corridor. There wasn’t time for a good
plan so I followed instinct and dashed down the narrow corridor to the first
door on my left. There was another nine digit key pad next to it with a red
light shining. The door I had just jumped through was starting to open when I
jumped behind the new locked door.

The room I appeared in was dark, lit
only with the faint glow of a dim light just to my right. At first I couldn’t
see anything besides the glow, everything else masked by the surrounding
darkness, but after a few seconds my eyes adjusted and I could make out more details
of the room.

I was glad I had adjusted the PTD
again to a five foot jump because the room was small. In front of me, only a
few feet away were a small desk and chair, the light source was a dim lamp on
the desk. To the left was a toilet and sink.

I heard a soft movement to my
right and I turned to see the cause. There was a bed against the wall and in it
was a person covered with a blanket. Their back was to me and I couldn’t tell whether
they were someone I had met or seen before. Not that it mattered. All that
mattered was the stillness of the body seemed to indicate they were still
asleep or laying there frozen, trying to figure out who was in the room.

Assuming the person was asleep I
tried to make out more details of the small room and noticed the dark object
hanging on the chair. Quietly I moved towards it and as I had thought, there
was a hand gun hanging in a shoulder holster.

There was no way for me to know
if anyone was still outside the room. It was time to leave though. I couldn’t
stay long. Whoever was lying in that bed could wake at any moment. At least now,
I could arm myself and have somewhat of a chance if there were still others
outside. The clock was ticking. I needed to go and couldn’t delay any longer. I
picked up the weapon, pulled it from of the holster, and then, something hit my
head.

The impact threw me forward into
the desk. The gun flew out of my hand. I tried to recover, staggering back to
my feet when another hard blow hit the center of my back, pushing me forward
again. This time I was able to twist myself around mid-fall and saw my
attacker. I hit the ground and my head knocked hard back against the edge of
the desk. Sharp pain flashed and my eyes watered. I could just make out a grey
figure standing above me.

“Why are you here?” a steady dry
female voice said void of any emotion.

My eyes cleared some and even
though it was still dark, I could now see it was a woman, not much older than
me, standing above me. She was wearing nothing more than a bra and panties, holding
the gun I lost in the fall. Her body stood in a perfect form shown as shades of
dim light and shadow.

“Why are you here?” her voice
repeated.

“Sorry, I stumbled into the wrong
room, my mistake. I’m new,” I tried to bluff.

“That response does not make any
logical sense. All units know where their respective quarters are located. No
other unit has code access to another’s quarters. No new units have been
scheduled to be activated for several weeks,” the steady voice replied.

What was she was talking about?
It was clear she didn’t buy my admittedly weak story. Using the only thing I
could think of to distract her, I moved my glance to a spot over her shoulder,
for just a fraction of a second and then back. My stupid elementary school
trick worked. She turned, it was only a second, but was all that I needed.

I kicked the fallen chair lying
at my feet. The force of the kick sent it shooting over the short distance into
her lower legs. She lost her balance and fell back as the gun flew from her
hands over towards the bed. As she fell, I kicked up back onto my feet and went
to where the gun landed as the woman crashed into the side wall.

I had my hand on the small weapon
when she hurled herself into me, throwing me down on the bed. The woman landed
on top of me. She was definitely one of us, her speed and strength matched
mine. The experience wasn’t as thrilling as one might have thought. It was more
painful than anything. As I tried to maintain control of the weapon, she
struggled to free the weapon with one arm and pound my face repeatedly with the
other. She then decided it would be more effective to hit below the belt,
literally with her knee.

While I got to experience that delightful
sensation for the first time I could remember, the knee movement threw her off
balance enough where I was able to quickly twist my body and throw her off to
the side. She was on her stomach and I moved on top of her. Using a technique I
had learned to incapacitate without killing, I put her in a sleeper hold until
her body stopped struggling.

I got off and turned her still
body over. Her skin was pale in the dim light and her face was framed with short
dark hair. Even though parts of her were obscured by dark shadow there was no
mistaking how beautiful she was.

I knew I had to be out of time.
Surely they’d noticed I was missing. I looked at the time on the dim display of
the PTD and saw more than twenty minutes had passed.

With my new weapon in hand I
moved to the door of the room. I turned the lever slowly. As the door opened, I
stood to the left of the doorway and could see down the hall to the right, back
towards the entrance from where I’d come. It looked clear. With the gun to my
side I peered around to the left. It was also clear. I sighed in relief and
headed into the hallway, closing the door behind me.