“Big-brother, the…mark arrived by sky-taxi just now with her four kids,” Blake reported, “but she took a detour on her back way from work.”
“Affirmative, watchdog-two-zero,” their handler replied, “The kids were scheduled for a series of medical tests today.”
“Understood, big-brother, but the mark never went to the medical centre,” Agent Blake explained, “she went to a residential address on the 201st floor of the Elysium Tower, stayed there for a few minutes, then picked up the kids from there.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line.
“Big-brother, come in?”
“Watchdog-two-zero, that address is registered to a certain Jezebel Thorn,” the handler explained, “she is also an active surveillance mark. Please immediately forward all signals intelligence collected from the exchange.”
“Uh, that’s a negative, big-brother,” Agent Blake answered, “the entire 201st floor was equipped with garblers; no usable SIGINT data could be gathered.”
“Understood, watchdog-two-zero,” the handler replied.
“Big-brother, Jezebel Thorn is the kids’ grandmother, confirm?” Agent Blake asked.
“Affirmative, watchdog-two-zero.” Big-brother answered, “But your hunch about it being just a family visit is unlikely.”
“Big-brother, please clarify.”
“The Thorn children were being examined by Directorate medical staff,” the handler explained, “only two people are authorised to drop them off and collect them afterwards. Even though she’s a blood relative, Jezebel Thorn isn’t one of them.”
“Understood, big-brother.” Said Blake, then he turned to Gibson and wondered aloud, “why the hell would DNI docs be examining these kids?”
“Irrelevant and above your pay-grade,” their handler replied brusquely, “mine as well.”
“Uh, understood, big-brother,” Blake hastily recomposed himself as Gibson smirked quietly, “big-brother, the Thorn family is home for the night. We’re recommending a snatch op. to question the mother.”
“Acknowledged, watchdog-two-zero,” their handler replied, “standby.”
The green comm. light turned yellow as the connection was put on hold.
“Somebody’s scalp’s gonna get nailed to Red-eye’s office wall.” Gibson remarked.
“What the fleek for?” Blake asked.
“The only reason they’d have DNI doctors examining those kids is if they have a parent in the DNI,” Gibson explained, “and pretty high up too.”
“Which means that anyone other than the parents picking them up from the medical centre is a major security failure.” Concluded Blake.
“Not as dumb as you pretend to be.” Gibson replied as he pulled up Aster Thorn’s personnel file and tapped on her spouse’s name.
“Gabriel Thorn…oh, look,” Gibson noted, “‘Access Denied: Tier 2 classification’.”
“So, that’s pretty high up?” Blake asked.
“Tier 1 classification would mean only the director-general and the Masterminds can look at the file.” Gibson explained, “And, by the way, the mere fact that I just tried to look up his information will have been logged by the DNI techs.”
“Doesn’t Red-eye trust her own spies?” Blake asked, miffed.
“Of course not,” Gibson answered, “we spy on people for a living.”
The yellow standby light turned green as their handler re-established the connection.
“Watchdog-two-zero, watchdog-two-zero, come in.” their handler hailed them.
“Big-brother, this is watchdog-two-zero,” Blake responded, “We read you.”
“Watchdog-two-zero, that is a negative on your recommendation for a snatch op.,” their handler informed them, “repeat, negative on a snatch op. The mark herself hasn’t done anything overtly suspicious yet. Until she does, continue observation.”
“Understood, big-brother,” Blake acknowledged, “over and out.”
* * *
Five…two…one…three…three. Sure enough, the elevator doors slid open, and the squad filed in. There were only two levels: laboratories and excavation site. Gabriel pressed the button for the excavation site and the doors sealed shut.
There was total silence all the way down. No one knew what they would find or if they would live to report back; not to mention one of their number was now probably a guinea pig for the insane staff. Critically injured though he was, Doran might be the lucky one.
Gabriel felt nothing in particular. That was normal. Voidstalkers weren’t supposed to feel anything in particular. He had made his peace with Ogilvy’s probable demise and Doran’s incapacitation, but he could sense that his remaining squad members were wary about continuing any further. Not that they were cowards – far from it – but they had more of a sense of self-preservation than he did. That was Human.
The elevator finally reached the bottom. The doors slid open and the squad emerged into a cave hewn from the rock. Floodlights were bolted to the ceiling and storage crates were stacked around the walls. High up on the rock wall opposite, painted in Human blood, were the words: ‘TEMPLE OF KNOWLEDGE’.
Directly below the message was a dark tunnel entrance, like a breach in the cave wall leading into a black abyss. Shining a light into the hole revealed a passageway whose walls and surfaces resembled pitch-black basalt with a smooth finish and precise angles.
“This cave is not a natural formation.” Cato remarked.
“I would never have guessed.” Gabriel replied sarcastically, eliciting chuckles.
Their levity was tempered by the ominous nature of the path ahead. The light-eating tunnel before them resembled the entrance to an alien tomb or a gateway to the underworld. Natural or not, it looked like a trap, especially given the hideous showpiece on display.
There were four corpses, two on each side of the tunnel entrance, mounted on pikes with their arms tied to crossbeams like crucified scarecrows. They had been savagely mutilated, either through sadistic torture or ineptly performed surgery – or both – with bloody maws in their torsos and dried blood caking their cheeks beneath their closed eyelids.
All four of the crucified corpses sported the remains of J.E. Co. security uniforms.
“At least now we know what ‘elevation’ means.” Bale remarked grimly.
“What the fuck kind of savages do this to people?” Cato wondered rhetorically.
No one cared to guess, especially since they were probably going to find out soon.
“Look at this.” Viker called out, holding up a heavy belt with a large activation button in the buckle. There was a whole crate full of them sitting largely untouched in the corner.
“Gravity belts?” Bale asked in bewilderment, “underground?”
“Gravitational anomalies inside the structure, perhaps?” Viker surmised, “This is definitely the weirdest op. I’ve ever been on.”
“If the research staff felt they needed them to go any further, we probably do too.” Gabriel concluded, “Everybody grab a belt.”
The squad complied and Viker passed out a gravity belt to each person before wrapping one around his own waist and tightening the buckle.
“Do we have a plan beyond ‘kill anything that moves’, sir?” Cato asked apprehensively.
“Not really, but we are going to finish this quickly,” Gabriel answered resolutely, “the schematics for the ‘temple’ feature a central chamber of some kind. We find the chamber, destroy whatever’s causing the insanity, and kill everything that gets in our way.”