At least Ogilvy’s bio-readings were still green. His comm. was dead, but he wasn’t; and his tracking signal was still within detectable range. But now, Gabriel was confronted with the invidious choice of pressing on towards central operations – their primary objective – and rescuing Ogilvy, which was what the squad would demand.
“Colonel.” Bale hailed Gabriel, “the door up here is sealed with a biometric lock. We can’t get through without a staff member’s DNA.”
“And it’s based on a rotating encryption protocol,” Doran added to the bad news, “It’d take days to bypass the lock electronically.”
“Can you breach it?” Gabriel asked.
“Breach the fricking door?!” Viker snapped in disbelief, “Ogilvy’s been captured–”
“Answer the question!” Gabriel shot back, “can you breach the door?!”
“...Negative…sir,” Viker replied through gritted teeth, “not without damaging the lock, and it’d take about an hour to cut through with a torch.”
“Understood,” Gabriel answered, “Join me down here. We’re going after Ogilvy.”
“Aye sir!” they chorused.
Gabriel’s decision had nothing to do with prioritising Ogilvy’s life. If they couldn’t get through the door to central operations, they would have to find an alternative route, and following the trail of Ogilvy’s captors was the best way forward.
As the rest of the squad found their way down to the ground floor and fanned out to secure the processing area, Gabriel came across a small door on the far side of the room marked ‘maintenance’. It was slightly ajar.
“Found a service hatch, far end of the room,” Gabriel informed the squad, “Ogilvy must have been taken through there.”
“I’ll rip that little snake Teller’s throat out!” Viker snarled over the comm.
“Interrogation first, retribution later.” Gabriel reminded him.
Viker’s unprofessional anger irked Gabriel. The life of a fellow soldier was important, but if Gabriel were on this mission solo, he wouldn’t let the desire for revenge distract him. Viker’s attitude could be a problem.
The squad converged on Gabriel’s position as he pulled open the hatch and ducked inside. On the other side of the threshold was a steep flight of steps leading down into the maintenance area. Not bothering with the steps, Gabriel jumped straight down, landing square on his feet and continuing on as the rest of the squad slid down the rails after him.
The ambient temperature was 35 C, close to Human body temperature, rendering the thermal enhancement filters in their HUDs useless. It was also pitch black, requiring the squad’s helmet filters to switch back to night vision.
“This is clearly a trap.” Cato muttered the obvious.
“Doesn’t matter,” Viker shot back, “we’re not leaving Ogilvy behind.”
Gabriel had to agree with Cato; this whole situation reeked of a trap in the making. Whatever the broader motivations were, the kidnapping of Ogilvy was tactically brilliant, and clearly intended as bait for a larger ambush. In which case, the service hatch had probably been left open deliberately in order to lure them further inside.
Out in the open, Teller would be dead meat; but down here, the squad was at a serious disadvantage. The maintenance area was a convoluted maze of narrow passageways barely wide enough for the fully armoured commandoes to walk down in single file. If it weren’t for Ogilvy’s tracking signal, they would have had no idea which way to go, and would have been forced to split up to search for him.
And what was that surging noise over the comm.? It sounded like radio static, but the DNI didn’t use radio technology. Was it some type of device for immobilising an exoskeleton? Technology like that existed, but DNI armour was supposed to be impervious to it. That someone might have found a way to defeat DNI safeguards was a disturbing thought.
More disturbing still, Ogilvy had shouted about at least eight hostiles attacking him; and yet the squad hadn’t detected anyone or anything right up until the power died. Had they all been too distracted by Teller’s guided tour to pay attention? Or had their ambushers found a way to defeat DNI sensor technology?
After a while, the path traced by Ogilvy’s tracking signal led the squad to another access hatch. They ducked through into a new area, a fully-lit corridor wide enough for two people. Once again, the squad’s helmets had to readjust to the light.
At the end of the corridor were two bodies slumped against the door, both dressed in maintenance overalls. One was clearly dead, his fingers still clutching his throat, having died trying to staunch the blood dribbling from his neck. Moreover, he had clearly been left to die by his fellows as they rushed ahead with their prisoner.
The other was their treacherous guide. He was still alive, barely; clutching his stomach as blood trickled from a wound there. He looked up at the approaching commandoes and gave a wry smile in between catching his breath.
“Should’ve known…about those…damn claws.” Teller wheezed.
There were cleaner and more professional ways of doing this, but there was no time to deal with Teller cleanly or professionally. Besides, Ogilvy’s kidnapping had left the squad angry and unfocussed; they might beat Teller to death before he could tell them anything.
With the rest of the squad holding the prisoner at gunpoint, Gabriel stowed his weapon and clenched his fists. The action caused three slightly curved blades on each hand to slide out from grooves on the back of his gauntlets. Gabriel used the eight-inch long combat claws to impale Teller through his shoulders. Teller groaned and squirmed in pain as he was lifted bodily off the ground, hanging like a limp doll on a set of meat hooks.
“What is going on in this place?” Gabriel demanded through his helmet speakers.
“Things you can’t begin to understand.” Teller grinned defiantly.
Gabriel responded by twisting his claws inside Teller’s shoulders, eliciting a howl of pain from the prisoner as little rivulets of blood trickled from his wounds.
“Answer the question,” Gabriel said menacingly, “and we’ll decide if we understand.”
“Well, your earlier hunch was right,” Teller admitted smugly, “There is xenotech here; the scientists have been studying it for years. But they found something new, something that enlightened them. And they made sure everyone else here was enlightened too.”
“‘Enlightened’?” Gabriel scowled suspiciously, “What in Terra’s name does that mean?”
“It means the dissolution of a prior state of ignorance and the attainment of a state of knowledge.” Teller replied sneeringly.
Gabriel didn’t like being sneered at, and made his displeasure clear by twisting his claws inside Teller’s shoulders again. Teller let out another shriek of agony in response.
“What kind of xenotech did they find, and where did they get it?” Gabriel demanded.
“I don’t know anything specific,” Teller replied, “I’m just a junior tech.”
Pleading ignorance wasn’t an answer, and Gabriel twisted his claws again.
“I never attained that level of enlightenment!” Teller screamed, his prior smugness dissolving under torture, “I really don’t know!”
“THEN WHO DOES KNOW?!” Gabriel bellowed.
“The scientists! Who else?!” Teller screamed back, “They studied it. They’re the ones who required everyone to be enlightened by it.”