CHAPTER 24

 

Jonah shed as much as he could. He need to be fast for this mission. Rifle, small pack with water, a little food and fatigues. He dropped the weight of his armor and even his helmet. He quickly sent a message relaying the situation to Sparks and Nettle and received a long angry passage of text in reply. He decided to leave reading that until later. No distractions from here on in.

He had no idea how far into the Darklands they had taken Ray, but he suspected he was going to have a long run ahead. The tracks of the heavy transports were easy to follow and stuck to well used trails. Jonah lapsed into the slow shuffling jog that the marines were taught to use when trying to max travel distance without exhausting themselves.

Jonah was glad for the relative cool on the fringes of the Darklands and he set a good pace. To his enhanced eyes the forest shimmered bright silver. IR overlays showed the deep wells of thermal energy the bigger plants generated beneath the soil. From his lessons before shipping out, Jonah knew that the plants used sunlight to a degree but most of their energy came from metabolic processes beneath the ground. Only about ten percent of the bulk of these plants poked above the planet surface, top up charging the forest with weak starlight.

The vast network of branches and roots and bacterial bioreactor chambers beneath his feet churned out enough heat to stop the forest freezing. Enough heat to bring the air temperature of the entire Darklands above freezing in fact. Terra-forming by evolution, Jonah thought to himself.

The information had washed over him during briefings but now that he could see the blooms of heat diffusing up through the soil, some so hot that plumes of steam filtered up through the undergrowth and wisped up the great trunks into the canopy, he felt like he was running on a living thing. He had the irrational impression that the planet knew he was there, like the tickle you feel when a small insect crawls through the hair on your arm.

Jonah alternated running and walking in thirty-minute stretches for the first six hours, taking only short breaks. His feet were hurting, and he was tiring badly but he knew from experience he could go for around another four hours at this pace until he would need a longer rest.

He climbed a tree to get a view across the forest to see if he could see lights up ahead and try to gauge how far he had to go. He saw nothing except his enhanced vision of the rippling forest canopy; impervious to his pursuit and seemingly endless. He descended and stared at the vehicle tracks stretching into the bush unchanging.

At some point the thin forest track he was on, had broadened into a wider road and a third vehicle track joined the two that Jonah followed. Jonah doubted they would have any reason to stop so he resigned himself to following at a slower pace. He might still have days to go. He sat and rested his back against a tree for a while. He knew better than to take off his boots. It would feel wonderful to be free of them but the psychological battle to put them back on would be exhausting.

He mentally toggled his proximity system through a range of modes that he rarely used. He picked up encrypted radio communication coming from behind and ahead of him. All that did was confirm that he was going in the right direction but gave no further information about range.

With one more marine they could have spread out and triangulated a source location but, by himself, all he had was signal intensity to tell him he was getting closer. He had a vehicle detection mode that picked up typical electromagnetic emissions from electric motors, but these were currently detecting nothing. No vehicles within ten kilometers.

“Not surprising,” Jonah concluded with resignation. He drank water, ate a little, and then hauled himself back to his feet. He set out, forcing himself into a long stride to eat as much ground as possible.

After a further four hours with few rests he was starting to trip and stagger, so he rested again. He was getting little info from the scanners. Jonah grabbed a Haemo-tab from his pack and swallowed it. Many marines took them at the start of a long hike, but Jonah preferred to take them when he was getting tired. The immediate improvement felt more dramatic from a state of exhaustion and made him feel superhuman.

He forced himself back into action and flicked on his radio detector. Since he last checked there had been a big increase in signal strength. Maybe he was going to get lucky and the trucks were not as far ahead as they could have been. Jonah selected a sturdy tree with low radiating branches and climbed.

This time, when he looked across the forest canopy, a brighter spot among the silver was visible. Jonah toggled off his enhanced vision. Against the black background, the light shining up through the forest canopy stood out brightly. Less than an hour away Jonah judged.

He descended and began to weave his way towards the lights More cautiously now and with his BE turned off and proximity alerts on, listening only. He began to see pools of light up ahead among the trees and could hear the distant sound of voices. Jonah frowned to himself. The echoing noise bouncing through the trees sounded like … like children. The unmistakable jumble of shrieks and laughter that comes from large groups of children at play.

Jonah crept forward again, trying to keep his mind off the unlikeliness of the children's voices and concentrated on looking for guard posts. He became aware of a stationary presence up ahead among the trees. His mind locked the presence to the rear side of a great tree some thirty feet ahead.

He immediately toggled his BE to off and waited while his eyes adjusted. Creeping forward in the shadow of the great tree, his vision silhouetted by distant light filtering through the trees.

He drew closer and heard murmurs of conversation whispering around the tree. He had hoped to take out the guard and grab a uniform but the prospect of taking out two without raising the alarm was a more daunting prospect. There must be at least one NOBE there.

Jonah froze unsure of how to proceed. Eventually he backed up and skirted, so he could get a decent look. He saw the faint outline of two guards, sitting on the roots, quietly conversing. He could kill them easily with a shot but that would undoubtedly bring more guards running. He could leave them but if the enhanced guard had IR vision, there was a good chance they would spot him approaching the camp.

The guards looked alert and focused as he watched them. Eventually they made his mind up for him. One of the guards stood up with a grunt, smoothing the front of his black CDSE security shirt over the bulk of his body armor. He shouldered his weapon, made a comment to his companion, and moved purposefully into the bush towards Jonah.

He let a trickle of power into his proximity systems, sniffing for the telltale emissions of bio enhancements. Nothing at all. To Jonah the man felt like a hole in reality. He could see him but couldn’t feel him. Definitely a NOBE. Jonah deepened his crouch and slithered a little to his left to intercept the man’s transit and to improve his cover. He drew his knife silently from its soft sheath and waited until the man passed him. Rising, he covered the distance in a stride, simultaneously covering the man’s nose and mouth with his left hand while drawing his knife across the man’s throat, cutting deep.

This was a move he had conducted many times in training but never in combat. The warm rush of blood on his arm and the smell assaulted his senses and took him by surprise. As he had been trained, he lifted the man clear of the ground, so he couldn’t force Jonah backwards. Blood loss of this magnitude should lead to unconsciousness in a few seconds.

In his mind, Jonah had expected the man to slump quietly into death but instead, he kicked out wildly with his feet and his hands grabbed at Jonah’s forearm, fingernails digging painfully. The heel of the man’s boot connected with Jonah’s shin and he stumbled, falling into collection of bushes and shrubs that crackled and snapped alarmingly. To Jonah the sound seemed so loud that security back in Atlas must have heard it.

Blood spurting from the cut, the fight ran out of the man swiftly and Jonah regained his balance, lowering him quietly to the ground. He listened for sounds of pursuit or for a call from the other man. Nothing came. Jonah knew he had to deal with the second guard who no doubt would be waiting for his partner to return.

The slick of blood on his hands and the smell made Jonah feel ill, his mouth flooding with saliva as he fought off the urge to gag. He wiped his hands on his uniform. No more knives he thought to himself. If he was going to steal a uniform it would be better if it were not covered in blood. Especially once he made it into the light.

He shook his head to clear his thinking and doubled back towards the tree. His view of the second guard obscured, he rounded the bowl of the trunk until he came into view, leaning back against the deeply rutted wood. This would be much more difficult than if he were standing, Jonah thought. Standing he could have gotten directly behind the man for a choke hold.

Jonah paused to steady himself then covered the remaining distance in two long strides, winding up to deliver a kick to the man’s temple. The guard clearly heard Jonah’s footfalls and turned towards the noise lazily, probably thinking his partner was returning. The toe of Jonah’s boot caught him squarely in the mouth instead of the side of the head. The man’s jaw caved in with a sickening crunch weakening the impact of the strike and failing to knock the man out.

He was flung back by the force of the blow and landed heavily on a tree root. Dazed, he struggled to scramble up. Jonah was glad it was too dark to see the state of the man’s face. From the strangled gurgles he was making it wasn’t good. Jonah followed with the butt of his rifle delivering a sharp crack to the side of the man’s head, felling him like a stalk of wheat.

Jonah breathed for a few beats, clearing his head then stood on the man’s throat, pressing down hard until the involuntary spasms subsided and then a further sixty seconds after that to make sure he wouldn’t wake up. Jonah quickly stripped the dead man’s pants, shirt and helmet and changed into them.

He felt immediately more human casting his blood-soaked camos into the scrub and sliding the shirt on. Made to go over nano-gel armor it was baggy but would give him at least a half chance of going unnoticed. He grabbed the guard’s combat shotgun as an afterthought.

Suddenly with a pang of fear he wondered whether the status of the guard was monitored and whether he had just tripped the alarm by killing him. Unlikely he concluded, the hair on his neck returning to rest on his skin. Most bio-status info needed to be carried on a network unless the unit members were close to one another.

Jonah turned some of his systems back on to confirm there was no active network and while he was at it, he scanned for any other enhanced personnel lurking in the trees. Not feeling anybody in the vicinity he bent down and used the recognition coils implanted into his left hand to locate the downed security man’s RFID tag. On Earth, VI did the job of an RFID but most people had them for close-up ID scanner like the ones in train stations and for door access etcetera. Like most people’s, it was implanted in the flesh between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand.

Jonah dug a rough cube of flesh from the guard’s hand with his knife and checked that it contained the man’s tag and that it still worked. Without an active network Jonah’s system had no chance to ID him, but the implant was definitely working.

Jonah wrapped the bloody lump of meat in a scrap of fabric cut from his old pants, dragged the body into deeper undergrowth and began to move forward once again.

Twenty minutes later, Jonah slunk into the back of a windowless, outlying concrete building. Moving slowly and staying out of the line of sight of the few guards that moved around the perimeter of the complex.

He had already spotted a large hanger-like structure that looked like a likely parking spot for the trucks. The noise of the children playing had been steadily growing and appeared to be coming from the other side of the building behind which Jonah hid. From his vantage, Jonah could see the side entrance to the hanger and watched as a CDSE security man exited. A lit RFID access panel was inset into the wall adjacent to the door which glided closed as the man exited.

Jonah slid around the building, angling to get a better view of what was looking more and more like a quadrangle between a small collection of buildings. As more of the quad came into view, Jonah began to see play equipment, a jungle gym and groups of children running in the bright lights that flooded the small compound. Jonah stared wide eyed at the children. It was like a bizarre dream. What on earth were they doing here? Or more to the point, what on Diana were they doing here.

All were dressed in identical uniforms. Shorts, T-shirts, and sports shoes. He forced his eyes away from the bizarre sight, struggling to keep his mind on task. They didn’t appear to be captive. No fences and no guards. A slim red hair woman in a similar uniform to the children stood with her back to him at the far end of the quad. Otherwise there were no adults.

Jonah forced his attention to the door in the hanger. It was a short sprint across the yard. He tried to block out the children’s laughter s and force himself to calmness. He walked purposefully, as if he belonged, and knew exactly what he was doing. He didn’t even allow his eyes to drift towards the children, focusing instead on the access panel to the door.

His neck tingled as if a thousand eyes watched his progress, but nobody called out to stop him. At the door he pulled the blood-soaked bundle of fabric containing the dead security man’s ID implant and held his breath as he held it to the access panel. The red surround light changed to green and the door responded with a satisfying click. Jonah let his breath out, opened the door and entered.

Inside, sensor lights flickered on revealing a wide, hard, packed dirt floor and a jumbled assortment of old shelves, tables, lab equipment, and other moldering detritus. The three familiar transports hunkered at the outward wall with their tails towards a large roller door, no doubt leading out into the Darklands jungle.

Just as Jonah began to move he detected changes in the pitch of the noise filtering through the thick walls of the storage hanger. Loud male voices, bellowing instructions quieted the cries of the children and he heard the unmistakable sound of running boots approaching. This goaded Jonah into action.

He guessed they had discovered the two guard’s bodies or at least discovered that the men were missing. Thinking fast, Jonah’s eyes flashed around the room looking for options. He had no doubt that at least some of them would be coming in to grab vehicles. More than anything, he needed one of those trucks.

He desperately wanted to rescue Ray but against these odds he had no chance and Aymes needed help now. He hoped beyond hope that Ray would be safe. The fact that they had bothered to grab her and not just kill her indicated that she had some value to them.

Jonah’s eyes locked on the baggage lockers on the side of the trucks. They were long, thin lockers that the passengers usually used to stow their bags or kit. Big enough for three or four big bags or one reasonably tall human.

He dashed towards the first truck and flipped the latch on the locker. It opened easily. Jonah jumped in and lowered the lid down as slowly as he dared, plunging himself into darkness. Just as the lid closed the hanger side door banged opened and Jonah heard booted feet pounding towards the trucks. The truck rocked as the men jumped in making Jonah brace himself against the walls with his hands and feet. This was going to be a rough ride.

The truck’s engines whined into life as the roller doors rumbled up into the ceiling and the vehicle accelerated, sending Jonah sliding down the locker. He absorbed the impact with his feet and silently congratulated himself on jumping into the locker the right way around. At the same moment, he hoped they had no reason to slam on the brakes suddenly.

What followed was a sickening eternity of sudden swerves and bumps that catapulted Jonah painfully into the locker lid, and endless sliding into either end. By the time the vehicle slowed Jonah was feeling thoroughly ill and working hard not to throw up. He was glad he hadn’t eaten in a while or else he might not have been able to control the nausea.

Just as the desperation to escape was becoming unbearable, the transport slowed and stopped. The locker rocked and recovered as somebody exited the vehicle. Dull footfalls on the mud road told Jonah that the passenger had exited which left just the driver. Hopefully no passengers had managed to make it into the back without Jonah detecting them. This was probably the best chance Jonah was going to get.

A couple of deep breaths and Jonah had decided a course of action. He chose speed over stealth thinking that the locker hatch was probably visible in the driver mirrors and opening it was bound to get noticed. If that happened, he would need to subdue the driver quickly.

He rolled himself onto his belly and grabbed the stolen shotgun in his right hand. He curled his knees underneath in preparation to spring. On a count of three he launched.

The locker lid flew opened and he made to jump onto the driver’s footplate. The window was open, and Jonah saw the driver’s eyes widening in surprise, reflected in the rear-view mirror.

The driver reacted far quicker than Jonah expected, slamming his foot down on the accelerator just as Jonah made to push of for his final leap. The result was he made no progress towards the driver window and had to grab wildly at the roof racks to stop himself tumbling backwards. He got a good hand hold but failed to see the whip like vines at the edge of the road as the driver swerved to wipe him off.

Jonah turned his face at the last second and endured the lashing of the plants until the driver was forced back into the middle of the road by a large protruding tree root.

Jonah had no choice but to drop the shotgun back into the locker and use both hands to haul himself onto the vehicle roof. Somehow, his assault rifle stayed slung around his shoulder. He braced himself, kneeling with his left hand on the roof and swung his rifle to fire from the hip, unloading into the roof of the cab estimating where the driver was.

The transport careened madly into the next corner without braking and failed to make the bend. A mud bank greeted the front end with a deafening crunch, smashing out the headlight and slewing the truck sideways. The impact ripped Jonah free and he sailed over the bank rolling to a stop among a stand of silver ferns.

He recovered immediately, regathering his weapon and springing back towards the vehicle, now wedged against the bank with its drive wheels spinning crazily on the wet road. He jumped down and sprinted around the back of the stranded truck, pellets of mud from the spinning wheels peppering him. He wrenched open the door and grabbed the collar of the very dead driver who lay face forward on the wheel.

A large chunk of his face was missing, and a fair percentage of his brain dripped down the windscreen. Jonah hauled him onto the road, the squealing engine quieting immediately as the dead driver’s foot lifted off the accelerator.

Jonah activated all his BE systems at once, the dark jungle flaring into a kaleidoscope of light and information as his enhanced vision kicked in. Immediately Jonah could feel a second man approaching fast up the road.

The spike of fear Jonah felt, flagged the man as dangerous. He stopped suddenly, and Jonah reacted by diving and rolling to his right. Bullets clattered into the truck body behind him as he moved, his roll ending with him kneeling, facing the now bright red target, weapon in good position, tucked tightly against his cheek. His enhanced vision zoomed in on the target and showed a green reticle in the middle of his chest.

A compact burst knocked the kneeling man back onto his heel. He dropped his weapon and clutched his chest, toppling sideways into the muddy road. Jonah rose and slid forward covering the downed man with the green reticle. When he got a clear shot, he put a round into the red sphere that represented the man’s head. His systems recognized a kill shot and the fear associated with the man vanished along with the red glow marking him as a target. The dead man faded to the same silvery hue as the rest of the road, as far as Jonah’s proximity systems were concerned he was just another undulation in the terrain.

Jonah cast his awareness wide feeling nothing but gentle fluctuations in the magnetic fields around him. He forced his breathing to slow, calming himself and recovering. He spat into the mud to try and clear the metallic killing taste, strangely it was not as strong in the darkness where his enhanced vision didn’t display blood in the visceral red of daylight.

Jonah walked back to the transport, pausing to extract the driver’s RFID from his hand. It would definitely work to start the truck. He climbed in and spent a minute or two cleaning the blood off the windscreen before backing carefully out and continuing up the road towards the pink of the Sunset Ring.

His adrenaline levels were sinking, and he yawned, the exhaustion of heavy combat settling over him. He had felt it before many times and embraced it. His body rebounding from the frantic action, requesting recovery time.

He allowed himself to relax into the undulation of the vehicle as he traversed the rutted road and let the hum and vibration of the motors take his mind away. The lone remaining headlight cast deep shadows in the bush that danced and wove crazily as he bumped along.

He started to remember the aftermath of other battles, other times when he felt the lightness of having survived once again mixed with the sickness of killing and death. In his mind he saw a hint of blue and the vision of a young woman with short cropped red hair ahead on the road. He smiled to himself and wondered what it was he was remembering.

With a start he realized he wasn’t remembering and the vision was actually there on the road. The light from the truck veered into the bush and woman disappeared for a moment. As he approached he slowed to train the lone headlight on the stumbling figure.

She was dressed in a shapeless blue smock, spattered with what looked like blood. Her bare feet dragged on the road as she stumbled, attempting to run. Clearly exhausted she fell to her knees, falling forward onto her hands, head down. Jonah glided to a halt, the headlight illuminating a bright blue smock and shock of short red hair, contrasting starkly with her distended shadow stretching out towards the trees. Jonah opened the door and stepped down.

“Ray?” he queried, forehead creasing in disbelief.