Wasteland Rules: Die Fighting (The World After Book 4) (10 page)

   He turned around to the table and looked at Derek.
A brief look of annoyance crossed his face before being replaced with a smarmy
and insincere smile. The director took a seat several chairs away and turned to
face Derek. He was annoyed by Derek taking his seat but he didn’t want to show
it. Derek was slightly impressed, maybe the man was more than an empty suit.

   “Where is Bob?” The CIA director asked casually.

   “Bob?” Derek asked in confusion.

   “Yes, Bob. My former employee.” Thornberg replied.
“The one who set this up. He said he had some information to share.”

   “Oh right, Bob.” Derek said nodding. “He can’t be
with us in person, but he is here in spirit.”

   The CIA director stared at Derek in confusion.
Derek could see the man was trying to figure out what Derek’s cryptic response
meant. As he tried to puzzle it out, Rora took a seat on Derek’s right. She had
a slight smirk on her face as she watched Thornberg’s confusion.

   “What he means is that Bob doesn’t exist as a
person anymore.” A familiar voice interrupted. “He died on Olympus Station and
now resides as a program within Major Storm’s phone. And he prefers to be
called the Voice now.”

   Derek started as the hacker known as
Frank
Shilling
entered the room and joined them at the table. Shilling was dressed in khakis;
a black long sleeve knit polo, and black work shoes. The hacker looked every
bit like a computer programmer right now, and not a field agent. He sat down
across from the director and nodded at him. The director smiled and nodded
back. Derek was a little surprised to see the man, but it did explain who he
worked for and some of his motives. Derek should have been surprised the hacker
knew all about the Voice, but somehow he wasn’t. The man was very mysterious
and seemed like he might be one step ahead of Derek and Rora at all times.

   “Shilling…” Derek barked.

   “My real name is Sterling Kroner, Major.” The
hacker replied smoothly.

   “So you work for the CIA?” Rora asked him.

   “Among other things.” The hacker said cryptically
with a smile.

   “Enough games.” Derek growled. “Let’s get down to
business.”

   “As you wish Major.” Kroner said agreeably. “Please
put the Voice on speaker.”

   Derek complied by bringing out the phone and
pushing the speaker button. “I have you on speaker with your former boss and
co-worker.”

   “Thank you Major.” The Voice’s said smoothly.
“Director…Sterling.”

   “Nice to talk to you again old friend.” The hacker
said happily.

   “You too, I miss our chats.” The Voice said
meaningfully.

   “Well, enough with the chit chat.” The director
said in an annoyed tone. “I brought you in here with the promise of valuable
information. What have you got?”

   “You tell us about the Faceless and where to find
them, and we will share the ARK with you.” Derek offered bluntly.

  “Derek!” Rora started to complain, but he silenced
her with a raised hand.

  Thornberg and Kroner shared a calculating look
before turning back towards Derek and Rora. “Very well.” The director agreed
and nodded to Kroner.

   “You have probably already figured out that the
Faceless are clones.” The hacker began. “They were the result of the CIA’s own
experiments with a process we stole from the pre-Collapse Collective. We used
one of our best operatives as the template. After a few false starts we got it
right and managed to create clones and deploy them into the field.”

   “So they had faces to begin with?” Rora
interrupted.

   “Yes. They were ‘normal’ clones in the beginning.”
Kroner responded. “But we had identity issues with clones and then with our
original operative.”

   “What do you mean identity issues?” Derek asked.

   “The clones had trouble dealing with not being
individuals and starting going crazy, that is why the Collective uses the chip
technology to control them and why there aren’t clones of everyone running
around. Having multiple other people who ‘are’ you becomes very confusing. Our
original operative began suffering from the same problem. So we had our
scientists monkey with the DNA blueprint to remove the faces of the new clones,
essentially removing the identity conflict.”

   “We met one of your scientists at Langley, and I
think more than the clones had mental instability.” Derek said with a chuckle.

   “Dr. Strahn is still alive? Interesting…” The
director interjected. “What were you doing in Langley? The building is buried
in rubble and locked down in a hot zone.”

   Derek realized he may have said too much. “We were
looking for a part for the space shuttle that turned out not to be there.”

   “How did you get in?” Thornberg said with great
interest.

   “NASA had suits which allowed us to cross through
the radiation and everything was working when we got there.” Derek lied. “That
was where we first encountered the Faceless, maybe they unlocked it?”

   “Hmmm…” The director said, clearly not buying
Derek’s story.

   “About the Faceless?” Rora prompted, trying to
redirect the conversation.

   “Yes. So the new clones were created without faces
and we used grafting technology to grow and transplant the face of the person
they would be replacing. The only distinguishing mark on them was the mole on
the neck, as you figured out for yourself.” The hacker continued. “It was an
incredible success. Many of our intelligence coups were by Faceless agents.”

   “So what happened?” Derek asked impatiently.

   “The operative we had used as the blueprint finally
snapped and became delusional. He somehow managed to remove his own face so he
looked just like his clones.” Kroner explained. “He began calling himself the
Faceless Man and started spouting nonsense about Eris and the rule of five.”

   “Wait.” Rora interrupted. “You mean he was a
believer in Discordianism?”

   “Actually, he is the founder of the current form of
Discordianism. He is the leader of the Discordian Society.” Kroner said
seriously. “He disappeared from a secure holding facility, we believe with the
help of his clones, and resurfaced a year later leading the Discordians.”
Kroner informed them. “Obviously we then covered it up because it was an
embarrassment. He not only escaped but he took all the clones with him, along
with the technology to create more and any record of who they were currently
impersonating.”

   “How is that possible?” Derek asked incredulously.

   “He must have been planning it for a long time and
he is a genius with a gift for manipulating people.” Thornberg explained. “That
is what made him such a great operative.”

   “But the Faceless we have encountered don’t seem
like geniuses.” Rora pointed out.

   “It was a side effect of the process that allowed
them to grow to maturity quickly.” Thornton explained. “We weren’t really that
upset about it. We didn’t really want a horde of geniuses running around; just
people with his skill set and the ability to impersonate anyone.”

   “So you had a rogue agent leading a dangerous
faction of lunatics and you did nothing?” Derek said in disbelief.

   The director and Kroner shared another look. “We
didn’t do nothing.” Kroner replied. “There was a lengthy shadow war as we tried
to root him and his clones out, but he proved very elusive and we took a lot of
losses trying to get him. Then the Collapse happened and we were greatly
reduced in our capabilities.”

   “So you have no idea where he is now?” Derek asked.

   “We don’t know where he is exactly, but we do know
how you can find out.” The director said confidently. “I need to know what your
plan is before I tell you how to find them.”

   “We plan to go to their location and retrieve the
ARK. If anyone gets in our way I’m going to kill them.” Derek said resolutely.

   “And probably destroy a few vehicles along the
way.” Rora chimed in.

   “I would concur with that assessment.” The Voice
added with a hint of humor in his tone.

   “Promise to kill the Faceless Man and you have a
deal.” The CIA director offered.

   “Sure, why not. His goons have been trying to kill
me for weeks.” Derek said sourly.

   “Excellent.” Thornberg said happily. “Kroner will
go with you to make sure the job gets done.”

   “How do we find them?” Derek asked forcefully.

   “You need to retrieve the computer core from
Olympus Station.” The director started.

   “We’ve already been down that road.” Derek
interrupted. “It doesn’t exist.”

   “The core exists.” Thornberg insisted. “It wasn’t
in New Mexico when you were lured there, but it was recovered in the Gulf about
a week ago.”

   “Then where is it?” Rora asked eagerly.

   “The Junk Traders in Wichita have it.” Kroner
stated. “They will be putting it up for auction in three days. We will go there
and steal it before they can sell it.”

   “You make it sound so easy.” Derek said
sarcastically.

   “Oh, it won’t be easy.” Kroner told them. “Every faction
in the Americas will have agents and or troops there in an attempt to retrieve
it. The data inside it is extremely valuable and could tip the balance of
power.”

   The pregnant silence following that statement was
interrupted by a loud rumble, followed by the room shaking, and the blare of an
alert klaxon. Everyone jumped including Derek. Kroner and Thornberg looked at
each other in confusion before looking at Derek and Rora. Seeing them equally
confused, the director tapped something on his wrist and a TV screen dropped
out of the ceiling. It snapped on to reveal a very high resolution video from a
security camera. The images on it shocked everyone into silence.

   The camera displayed a view of the garage area and
revealed heavy fighting inside. The CIA gunmen were engaged with an army of
well-armed and armored troops. A closer look revealed the attackers to be
larger than normal human beings. They were broader and more muscular than the
CIA gunmen and their exposed skin was brown like a Drinkers. They wore black
uniforms and body armor, and wore large black riot helmets with visors. Through
the visors Derek could see their animal-like red eyes.

   Most of them were armed with M-16 assault rifles
with large oversized bayonets mounted on them. But some of them were armed with
bulletproof shields and battle axes. The attackers were obviously very strong
because they carried the heavy shields one handed with ease. A furious
firefight had engulfed the entire garage, but the attackers were overwhelming
the defending CIA gunmen by rushing them. A few of the attackers fell to the
defender’s gunfire, but mostly it had little effect. The monstrous attackers
were charging the defending gunmen and gutting them with their bayonets or
chopping them to pieces with their axes.

    Derek, Rora, Kroner, and Thornberg watched in
horror as the CIA gunmen were cut apart. They rallied briefly by engaging some
of the heavy weapons on the parked vehicles. Sustained fire from the vehicle
weapons forced the attackers back, but they suddenly charged forward again
using a human wave tactic to overrun the few active gunners. More CIA gunmen
arrived to try to reinforce their comrades, but they were gunned down by heavy
weapon fire emerging from the entrance. A massive figure stormed forward and
the surviving gunmen broke and ran.

    Standing over seven feet tall, the new attacker
loomed over the original attackers. He wore body armor that looked like it was
made of cast steel painted shiny black with gold highlights over a black body
suit. There was a metal chest and back plate, shoulder pads, gauntlets, and greaves
which covered from ankle to knee. Wicked looking spikes jutted up from various
points on the armor giving it a menacing look. On the chest plate was a symbol
in gold that looked like two stylized arrows pointing inward and touching at
the tips.

   The new leader wore a mask which was also painted a
flat black with gold highlights and only covered the eye and forehead area,
displaying a fanged mouth. The massive attacker carried an M-249 SAW with an
automatic grenade launcher attached underneath that he handled one handed. A
steady stream of machine gun fire and grenades ripped through the fleeing CIA
defenders. The monster laughed evilly as he mowed them down.

   “Who or what is that?” Thornberg gasped in terror.

   “Who is attacking us?” Kroner demanded from Derek.

   “How should I know?” Derek protested.

   “You think it is a coincidence that you show up at
my base and then we get attacked?” The director yelled.

   “We didn’t know where it was until we got here.”
Derek said defensively. “And I assume you scanned us for trackers or bugs…so it
must be someone on your side who betrayed you.”

   They paused the argument as the giant creature
approached the security door that blocked the exit from the garage. The thing
looked up at the camera and smiled a terrible smile as it stood over several
bloody corpses. They could all see the sharp teeth and fangs in razor sharp
detail.  Twin katanas were visible strapped to the creatures back.