The Aegis Solution (8 page)

From his detached perspective, Elias pondered the foolishness of their positioning as the five
remaining young men stood in a circle, guns drawn; their clear intent was to aim at him, but their
unacknowledged result was to have drawn a bead on each other, with only the bullet-stopping ability
of his body as the buffer.

Elias was not sure if he was witnessing the field promotion of the former second-in-command or
if the youth now dead at his feet had ever been the leader, but another member of this small gang
stepped forward, his only true distinguishing characteristic being that he was the widest among them.
From his position and the direction of the shot which had taken out the tall one, Elias realized that this
was the thug who had fired. Taking care to not place himself within Elias' reach, he halted and
threatened, "Drop the gun or die."

Elias slowly bent forward, and gently placed the Beretta on the concrete. He then straightened, his
arms hanging loosely at his sides.

"Kick it away."

Placing the side of his right foot against the pistol, Elias slid it to his side, toward the wall on his
right.

His eyes never leaving those of the gang leader, Elias asked, "What's this about?"

The slightest smile curled one corner of the thug's mouth as he said, "I got no problem explainin'.
Every place needs jack…money…even this place."

"I didn't bring any," Elias answered, his tone conversational, as if he were oblivious to the fact that
he had five guns, in the hands of obvious amateurs, aimed directly at him.

The smile spread on the face of the thug and he shook his head hard, as though he were trying to
dry his hair. "You don't get it, dude. In here the currency is you."

As he heard this, the second piece of the Aegis puzzle fell into place for Elias. In the anarchy which
would prevail within these walls, paper money would be essentially worthless. Yet every society, even
the most chaotic, would need a medium of exchange. It would have to hold an intrinsic value. With a
steady stream of people walking through the front door, the obvious choice would be slavery.

Elias shrugged. "Okay. I understand. I'm all yours."

The caricature of a smile left the wide youth's face. "I don't think so."

His eyes darted down to the pistol on the floor, then back to Elias, before he said, "You gonna be
too much trouble. Nobody gonna want you."

The thug, speaking to the two standing behind, said, "Unless you want to take a bullet, you better
move your asses."

Elias heard the scuffling of feet behind him but did not dare to look over his shoulder, deciding
to keep his eyes on the young man in front of him. When the sound from the rear stopped, the youth
lifted his gun up and pointed it directly at Elias' forehead. Elias recognized it as a .357 magnum, and his
mind calmly ran through the firing characteristics of the weapon, knowing that within moments his head
would be vaporized. In an almost detached way, he observed the shooter's thumb pull back the hammer.

With nothing to lose, Elias ducked under the revolver and plunged forward, hoping to overtake
his executioner in time. The thug was quicker to respond than Elias hoped, and he felt the butt of the
heavy pistol slam into the top of his head. Instantly, his legs crumbled beneath him and he fell to the
concrete floor. Somehow he managed to retain a feeble grip on consciousness and, as he fell, rolled to
the right.

He now lay on his back, at the feet of the thug, who took a step forward. "See, I told you, you're
too much trouble."

The punk obviously knew enough about ballistics to understand that if he shot Elias in the head
in this position, the .357 slug would ricochet off the concrete. He aimed at the part of Elias' body which
would provide the most resistance to the bullet, the chest, and again steadied for the kill shot. Elias had
deliberately fallen to place himself within arm's length of his 9mm, but his mind could not come up with
a scenario where he could grab the weapon, aim, and discharge it before the thug could pull the trigger.

Although there was more than adequate light, Elias only saw a dark blur suddenly sweep into his
field of vision. The fast-moving phantom, or whatever it was, collided with the punk standing over Elias,
causing the pistol to fly from his grip and clatter to the floor, followed immediately by the thug himself,
who collapsed facedown.

Even though he had no idea who or what attacked the new leader, Elias took advantage of the
sudden distraction to grab his pistol and roll against the wall, bringing the barrel up to bear on the
nearest of the other thugs. A split second before applying enough pressure on the trigger to discharge
the 9mm, Elias relaxed his finger, seeing that there was no need to fire. The other gang members were
running headlong down the side corridor, already almost fifty yards away.

As he shifted his weight and got to his feet, Elias looked around for the source of intervention
which had saved his life, but the area around him was empty except for the two motionless thugs at his
feet. He tucked the 9mm back into his pocket and reached down to check for a neck pulse on them
both and, although not expecting to find one on the first punk who took a .357 slug to the chest, was
surprised to discover that the other gang member was also dead. It did not require the skills of a medical
examiner to determine that his neck had been broken.

With a final glance around, Elias picked up his suitcase and resumed walking toward the center hub
of the complex.

CHAPTER THREE

Elias noticed that the graffiti gradually diminished as he proceeded, until it was all but gone from
the walls. Apparently, he was leaving the territory of the gang who had accosted him earlier. Although
the attack and dialogue with the gang member had answered one or two of his questions about Aegis,
his mind was swirling with the new ones prompted by what he had seen, especially the mysterious dark
blur which had passed directly into his view, disarming the thug, breaking his neck, and disappearing
without a trace.

As these thoughts entered his consciousness, he mentally chided himself for his florid descriptions,
remembering how often, while he had been the occupant of Faulk's office, he would call agents on the
use of terms like "mysterious" or "disappearing" in their field reports. And yet, he thought, how else
could he depict the intruder or, he should say, rescuer?

He had passed the center hub of the complex and was now walking down the opposite corridor,
when he was not surprised to find that there was a blockade which had not been shown on the plans
he had reviewed. Nearing it, he saw that it was constructed of salvaged concrete blocks. Obviously, since
building materials were not a part of the regular supply deliveries to Aegis, the residents had improvised,
demolishing a CMU wall somewhere in the complex and reusing the blocks. As he reached it, Elias
noted that there was no door.

Although he had seen the miniature camera mounted high on the side wall of the corridor, Elias
decided that since the obvious intent was concealment, he would pretend to be unaware of its presence.
There was no point in acting like anything other than a normal entrant to Aegis.

Suddenly, a voice came from a hidden speaker above. "Are you alone?"

Elias nodded and answered, "I am."

Fifteen feet above, a panel in the ceiling slid aside and a rope dropped down, dangling a few feet
from Elias. The male voice on the speaker instructed, "Tie your suitcase to the rope."

Aware that in a situation such as the one created within these walls, commodities would have a
much greater value than money or gold, Elias asked, "How do I know that you won't just take my stuff
and leave me here?"

"You don't," the voice replied flatly. "You can always stay on that side and take your chances."

With a shrug, Elias set down the suitcase and looped the nylon braid through the handle, tying a
simple square knot. Before he finished this process, a rope ladder was dropped for him to use.
Obviously, whether he would relinquish his suitcase had been some sort of a test. He had passed.

He scaled the rope ladder, following his suitcase up into the opening in the ceiling. At the top there
were two men waiting. Both gripped his arms, helping him through. The moment his feet touched the
plywood platform, the two strangers pulled up the ladder and slid the cover back over the opening. It
fell onto the supporting lip with a solid thump.

One of the two men extended his hand and introduced himself. "I'm Will Rogan." Elias shook his
hand as he took measure of the man. He was somewhere in his mid-thirties, with a slender build and
thick, curly hair.

"And this is Ontewon Johnson."

The other man could best be described as thick and muscular, his head shaved so closely that his
black scalp shone in the dim light. The handshake Elias received from him was substantially more
powerful, as he smiled and said, "Welcome to Aegis."

The two turned, making it obvious that Elias was to follow them. Picking up his suitcase, he did,
and found that at the end of the short platform, oriented just on the other side of the blockade, was not
another opening with a rope ladder, but an actual set of stairs descending to the floor.



The courier from Fort Detrick stood at attention at Faulk's desk, not showing the slightest hint of
disapproval as the recipient of his delivery violated protocol by opening the pouch in his presence. The
flash drive slid onto the desk blotter, and Faulk quickly snatched it up and inserted it into the USB port
of his desktop computer. The embedded security program on the drive activated instantly and Faulk was
prompted for his password, which he hastily typed. The security gateway instantly disappeared from the
screen, replaced with a file list, which contained only one entry. Faulk double-clicked the file and a video
clip ran. It was only twenty-eight seconds long.

After watching the video three times, Faulk signed for the delivery and handed the paperwork back
to the courier. The man was not fully out of his office before Faulk had completed a phone call on his
secure line.

"He's in."
 



"Zack, what the hell was that thing?" BQ shouted, the adrenaline coursing through his body and
causing him to pace aimlessly.

"I don't know," the tall young man answered, his hand still shaking from their panicked run back
to their home zone, or from the terror he still felt. "It musta been what Slate told us about before. One
minute Jay-T was standing there with that dude, and the next minute he was on the floor dead! I never
saw what hit him."

"Me neither. All I saw was a streak."

Ignoring the chairs and sofas strewn around the room, BQ dropped to sit on the floor, leaning his
back against the wall. He pulled up his knees and rested his arms on them, trying to calm his breathing
and slow down his thundering heart.

The young man called Zack dropped heavily onto one of the sofas, his head coming to rest on the
upholstered arm while his feet remained on the floor. After a minute, he asked, "How are we gonna be
able to keep doing business if that thing's out there?"

"Doin' business! What you talkin' about? That's the least of our worries! If that thing wants to come
in here and take us out, it can. What we gonna do to stop it?"



Neither Elias nor the two men escorting him ever noticed the stranger crouched in the shadows
above the ceiling line, in the jumbled and darkened mechanical space which surrounded the access
platform. They never saw or felt the pair of eyes watching as Elias came up the rope ladder and went
down the stairs on the other side of the barrier wall.

The unseen watcher remained motionless for several minutes after the three men departed, before
finally retreating into the deeper shadows away from the area.



Throughout the brief walk down the moderately clean and well-maintained corridor, Elias was
mildly surprised at the utter normalcy of the environment on this side of the blockade. He still was not
sure what he expected inside this anomalous institution, but to his eyes and ears, it appeared as if he
were walking the hallways of some ordinary complex in the outside world, rather than penetrating
deeper into Aegis. There were others who passed him as he was being escorted, and they smiled at him
and nodded a greeting.

Johnson and Rogan walked casually at his side, not conveying the sense that he was their prisoner,
or even their charge, but simply that they were helping him find wherever he might be going.

"I am curious about one thing," Elias addressed them both.

Rogan chuckled. "Only one thing. I would have thought you'd have lots of questions."

"I do, I guess, but that is a pretty serious blockade back there."

Rogan nodded as they walked. "It has to be. There are gangs in Aegis who want to expand their
territory."

"I get that," Elias responded. "I ran into some of them on my way."