Dawn of the Mad (31 page)

“Where are they headed?” Colonel Little asked.

The soldier pushed a series of buttons on his terminal. “Colonel, they appear to be headed back to the detective’s apartment.”

“Good. We will intercept them there. We need to try to get a team ahead of them if possible. Relay a different location to the police; I don’t want them to bear witness to our methods of cleanup.”

CHAPTER 28

“I’m almost there, hang on!” Roman yelled as he sped toward his apartment. He took a corner with tires sliding and rubber burning and drove the vehicle up the curb and onto the tiny patch of grass that was his front lawn and came to a halt. Corporal Scotts jumped out and ran to the other side of the vehicle to help Captain Cruwell, who was busy pulling the now semi-conscious Sergeant Matthias out. Roman popped open the trunk and grabbed Reaper’s overheated body, dragging it to the front door.

“Scotts, get the trans-mat online!” Cruwell yelled frantically.

Roman opened the front door to his apartment and ran back to help Cruwell and Matthias. Scotts ran inside the apartment to the trans-mat. Roman noticed a pair of Humvees turning into the apartment complex’s parking lot.

“Damn. We have company.”

Roman pushed Cruwell inside and ran back to the Crown Vic to retrieve his shotgun. “Get inside,” he told the others. “I’ll hold them off!” Cruwell nodded and disappeared inside, dragging Reaper by his arm. A couple of curious neighbors stepped out of their apartments to see what was going on. They quickly ran back inside as Roman opened up with two slug rounds from his shotgun aimed at the nearest Humvee, causing it to swerve and come to a halt. Six soldiers wearing blue berets jumped out, their M-4s at the ready. The other Humvee stopped close by. Five more soldiers got out and took up positions among the cars parked in the parking lot.

A strong wind began to swirl in Roman’s upstairs bedroom as Scotts activated the trans-mat. Cruwell nodded to Scotts, and they both heaved Matthias into the swirling mass of multicolored lights. He disappeared in an instant, leaving no trace behind.

“You’re next, Scotts! The alien goes with you!” Cruwell yelled over the increasingly high-pitched whine of the trans-mat. Cruwell had dragged Reaper upstairs, and his apparently lifeless black eyes stared blankly at the wall.

Scotts looked at Cruwell and shouted, “Hurry! It will overheat! Go get Roman!”

Cruwell nodded as Scotts picked Reaper up under his arms. Scotts took a deep breath and stepped into the lights, immediately disappearing from sight.

“Roman, let’s go!” Cruwell yelled down the stairs. He could hear the gunfire outside.

Roman quickly emptied his shotgun and closed the front door and locked the deadbolt. Rounds from an M-4 impacted the outside of the wall and door, penetrating in some areas sending wood splinters flying. He ran upstairs and immediately froze upon seeing the awesome light display emitting from the trans-mat. The whine was now almost deafening.

“We must go now!” Cruwell yelled over the high-pitched whine. Stupidly, Roman replied, “Where?”

“Back with us. You must decide now!”

An explosion tore through the front door, and they could hear soldiers enter the apartment, preceded by sounds of flash bang grenades detonating in the entryway. The trans-mat slowly started to slow its rotation.

“Hurry!” Cruwell jumped into the light and vanished. Roman stared at the swirling lights before spotting his cat, Morris, cowering under his black futon. Roman ran over and lifted up the futon, grabbing Morris by the scruff of his neck in the process. With one hand holding his shotgun and the other holding Morris, he jumped into the light a split second before it powered off. He vanished just as the soldiers reached the doorway to the bedroom. The lead soldier looked around the empty room and activated his throat mic.

“Colonel, we have a problem.”

The room was a mess from the swirling wind of the trans-mat, and it started to fill with smoke from the overheated trans-mat disk and the flash bang grenades from main room.

With the extra passengers, the shuttle was a bit cramped. Colonel Chuikova had seen the trans-mat activate on the shuttle and grabbed Matthias as he materialized. Taking note of the sergeant’s wounds, he quickly put him into the life support stasis pod. Matthias’s body was instantly frozen, halting the creeping death that was trying to overtake him. Scotts came next, with Reaper. The colonel immediately took their prize and pulled him to the back of the shuttle. Scotts quickly recovered from his trans-mat journey and helped secure Reaper, placing him in the shuttle’s other stasis pod. A few moments later, Cruwell materialized. He stepped back from the trans-mat and stared into it.

Scotts walked up to Cruwell and said, “Is Roman coming?”

“I don’t know, but the trans-mat is almost spent. He’d better come quickly, if he’s going to come.”

The colonel walked up to Scotts. “We need to erase all evidence of us being there.”

“What about Roman? We can’t do that!” Scotts protested. “I have my orders.”

Suddenly, Roman appeared in the trans-mat beam. Cruwell ran over and caught him before he collapsed. Roman clutched Morris tightly to his chest. The cat seemed to fare the trip a lot better than his owner. Scotts looked at the colonel, who simply nodded.

“Do it.”

Scotts hit a sequence of buttons on the shuttle’s trans-mat, and the swirling lights began to reverse themselves. Scotts had accelerated the overheating of the unit on the planet. Smoke began to emit from underneath the device on the shuttle.

Cruwell helped Roman to a bench in the back of the shuttle. Scotts opened a case on the steel-grated floor of the shuttle to show a large, cylindrical device. He twisted the top of the device to activate it. Upon hearing it beep, Scotts tossed the device into the trans-mat beam. He immediately shut off the trans-mat. The swirling lights stopped suddenly, briefly throwing the shuttle into an eerie quiet. The colonel grabbed Scotts by the shoulder.

“What was that?”

“Insurance. In case the trans-mat unit on the planet doesn’t detonate, that bomb I just sent down will ensure it does.”

“Good work. We must leave now. Raus says they have been detected and will soon be engaged.”

Scotts nodded and began to initiate startup of the pulse drive. After everyone was secured for the pulse jump, Scotts activated the drive. The tiny shuttle instantly became a blur as space and time contracted for a split second, hurtling the crew back toward the other side of space.

“Team leader, give me an update,” Colonel Little said into the handset. The black RV in which he rode slowly made its way back toward Roman’s apartment.

“Sir, they are not here. They vanished!” The voice on the other end was very excited. The last transmission came through from the assault team.

“What the hell do you mean, they vanished? Nothing can vanish into thin air!”

The transmit disk began to rotate in the opposite direction, and within a few seconds it stopped. The team leader knelt down beside the trans-mat and noticed there was a cylindrical device with a flashing red indicator on the top. The team leader observed curiously as the flashing light increased its frequency.

“Sir, our situation just got worse.” The excited voice suddenly turned serious with the intense realization of what might soon happen. Colonel Little’s frantic calls over the radio were suddenly forgotten.

“Oh my god.”

Dean activated his wheelchair and went into his television room, where both sets showed breaking news. Dean turned down CNN and turned up Fox News. He listened with intense curiosity as a reporter spoke from the studio.

“We have breaking news just in. An entire apartment complex was destroyed in what police and federal officials are calling an act of domestic terrorism. A Metro spokesman issued a statement that police detective John Roman, who lived at the destroyed apartment complex, was affiliated with the notorious white supremacist motorcycle gang calling itself the ‘SS Viking.’ Apparently, Roman and members of his outlaw gang robbed a bank this afternoon. Upon being chased by police, Roman and his gang detonated an ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb. The police department has also stated that Roman was under investigation and that they were about to move on him with federal authorities. The bomb that was used apparently was meant for City Hall. Stay tuned for more on this breaking story.”

Dean put the volume back on mute, and his house resumed its normal silence, save for the occasional meow from one of his cats. Dean guided his wheelchair back into his study, where he resumed painting a miniature figurine of a dragon. He began to highlight the red around the eyes. He paused and muttered to himself, “I guess Cyrus screwed up. At least I got fifty grand out of the deal.

CHAPTER 29

The Emperor’s Fist
emerged from the electromagnetic corridor prematurely, with large, powerful gravitational waves emitting from its pulse core. Those who weren’t braced properly were knocked off their feet or chairs. The elongated strands of starlight immediately shrank to points of singularity as the ship slowed to cruising speed. Unfortunately, it was not alone.

“M class warship sighted, Admiral,” a helmsman reported from his viewing screen.

Admiral Raus stared out through the massive panoramic view screen.
The Emperor’s Fist
had emerged near a small, uninhabited water planet. Massive ion storms erupted all over its surface. The enemy warship that the helmsman had picked up was the only thing keeping them from returning home, and the admiral wasn’t about to let that happen. The gravitational waves produced a distortional effect around
The Emperor’s Fist
, pulling the enemy ship closer, into attack range.

“The ship is closing rapidly, sir,” the helmsman continued. “I am detecting multiple torpedo launches.”

“Very well. Prepare for impact. Shut off the pulse core and initiate conventional thrusters. Hard starboard turn and prepare a retaliatory strike.”

The initial salvo hit
The Emperor’s Fist
hard, head-on. The massive, aging battle barge was most heavily armored in the front; it buckled under the impact but held together. Several computer banks emitted electrical sparks, and a few crew members were tossed to the deck. Immediately, alarm klaxons resonated throughout the ship. The helmsman turned the battle barge to starboard, exposing its deadly banks of laser batteries. Once the maneuver was complete, the admiral gave the order: “Fire!”