The Omega Device (The Ha-Shan Chronicles Book 1) (38 page)

“S-so,” he gasped. The man loosened his hold. “Fail-safe…. Machine isn't deciphered properly, it'll set it off. It'll kill us all! You keep them alive, I'll do it.”

West chewed the inside of his lip, one side pulled taught. He growled, slammed his pistol against Russell's head, knocking him out. He turned his gun on Thorne shoved it against his forehead as the guard behind him stepped away.

“How do I know you're not playing me?”

Thorne was shoved to his knees. West's barrel followed. “Is it worth risking your own life? You know I'm the only one that can do this. I already have the program.”

“I could take it from you,” he said through his teeth, cocking his pistol's hammer.

Thorne took a moment to regain his breath and confidence, “C'mon West, you know if
I
don't access the drive, it's fried.”

West contemplated his words, slid the hammer back up, “Decode it or I kill them all.”

“And once we're done? We can go?”

West gave a laugh through his taught face, turned away. He whirled 'round fast, slammed his fist into Thorne's gut, and knocked him once more to his knees.

He ordered his men, “Get them up! I want a cage welded on the left wall, and I want them in it. Don't take your eyes off them. You've got twenty minutes.”

“Yes, sir,” a man said. He rushed off. More people began to enter through the corridor.

“Jesus Christ,” Thorne choked as he rose to his knees. “This has to be the whole damned Eastern section! Are you insane? If you bring them here and something goes wrong they're all dead.”

“Shut up. There's a revolution going on here, and I'm
not
losing this site.”

Thorne pulled himself together, “Libyan rebels, but… I thought the civil war ended in '11?”

“These people crave war. I respect them for that,” West said with a deluded brotherhood. “Set up the tech, or fuck off.”

Thorne had forgotten how much he truly despised West. He helped Omega's reservists set up their systems, stalled as much as possible, then kept himself busy with his own workstation to wait for the others to regain consciousness.

When Omega was finished, the chamber looked more like a small field compound than an ancient hideaway. Everything from tents to massive computer-banks and surveillance equipment had been brought in to monitor every inch and angle of the room.

Thorne's own workstation was placed atop the dais, beside the stone console. He positioned his six, mounted screens to overlook the others' cage. He pasted every detail of the room into the back of his mind, ran through a dozen futile plans of escape, his eyes on their unconscious bodies through the cracks between monitor-mounts.

No matter what, everything was now on him. He ran a background program, hacked the comm and surveillance equipment to keep his eyes and ears alert to the chamber. He put his headphones on, listened to the guards' chatter beneath low music.

His chest tightened as he began a purposely slow process of manually drawing each Cuneiform symbol to scan and search his databases with. Every few minutes, his eyes drifted helplessly to the cages.

33.

Execution

October 9
th
 

5:08 AM

The Omega Device

Maggie felt cold stone beneath her cheek. She opened her eyes on feet that passed beyond metal bars through the vague, white-noise of Omega working through-out the chamber. She shifted sideways to check Russell, her side, head, and back aching. He was still unconscious, but Reese sat with her legs drawn up in a corner of the cage, her head leaned against the bars in a stare.

She looked over at Maggie, “You okay?”

Maggie rolled Russell on his back, listened to his heart beat, then heaved a sigh and slid to Reese's side.

“Yeah, I'm great,” she replied sarcastically.

“Took a hell of a hit,” Reese said in a breath.

“Getting used to it by now. What about you?”

Reese shrugged, her chest stuttering as she inhaled. Maggie caught it, interrogated her with a look.

Reese wheezed, “I think my lung's collapsed.”

“What? How?”

She took a second deep breath, “When we hit. I didn't want to—” she paused for another breath. “Say anything. But it's getting worse.”

“What can I do?”

“Unless you've. Got a chest tube on you.”

Maggie surveyed Omega's stronghold. Directly ahead, atop the stone dais, Thorne sat behind his bank of computers. Maggie's gaze shifted sideways to the two columns ahead of him, a second bank of computers set up there. West paced behind them as he delegated orders to a blonde woman. He yelled something, then stormed off to a line of tents across the chamber. Thorne watched West disappear, then jumped up and sprinted past a pair of patrolling guards.

He crouched to look in at them, “Are you guys alright?”

“We'll be—” Reese began.

Maggie whispered, “Reese needs a doctor,”

“I know,” he said helplessly, rubbing his forehead. “But we're screwed right now.”

“Do you have
any
ideas on getting out of here?”

“No.” He paused to survey the guards behind him, “And we've got other problems.”

“What now?”

“There's a revolution going on across this country. Something about radicals and an election—I don't know—but that's not the point.”

“They're headed for us aren't they?”

He nodded, “Yeah, and they've got a penchant for destroying ancient ruins. Something about erasing past tyranny—Whatever that's not important. Look, there's an entire
fucking platoon
here. What's down here's only
a fraction
of what's on the surface.”

“So we're not getting out?”

He looked to her with despair, “Maggie, I made a deal with West—”

“You
what?”
 

He checked behind him, “Just listen. I agreed to decipher the console, but that's as far as I'm going. If his techs want to turn the damned thing on they can figure it out themselves.”

“Are you
mental?
”

“I'm hoping we'll be gone before then—”

“Do you have any idea how this thing works yet?” Maggie asked.

“
Nobody
does.”

“It was meant to
annihilate our species
.
It isn't going to stop once it starts.”

“There's nothing I can do,” he stressed. “Look, I know how to—”

“Thorne!” West screamed. He charged the cages. Thorne scrambled. West shouted after him, stopped beside Maggie. “You son of a whore! Get your ass back to work or I'll bleed one of 'em like a hung deer.”

“Good to see you too… West,” Reese breathed.

“Shut up,” he spat, whipping toward them.

Maggie saw his red face, cracked a sly smile, “Looking a bit worn-out, West. Might want to go easy on those binges.”

He leaned in with a low growl, “I'll have your fucking head for what you've done.”

Her face hardened, “If you were any kind of a leader they wouldn't have left.”

West grabbed her through the cage, spun her around and held her by the hair with one hand. He stretched her backward against her wound, pain forced a tremor through her body. She felt a blade press her throat. Cold steel threatened to sever her windpipe.

“I could do it
right now,
” He hissed in her ear.

Maggie straightened against the blade, “Miles to go, West. You kill me and Thorne'll never decode the weapon.”

West pulled his knife away begrudgingly, sheathed it. “You're right, I can't kill you…
yet.
”

He reeled back, expended his speed and strength to jab a fist into her wounded side. She cried out, instantly in tears. He released her to her knees, kicked her forward through the bars with a heavy boot, and began to walk away. She fell onto her stomach, fighting not to sob but finding it impossible.

She rounded, screamed with rasp, “You fucking
tool
!”

He stopped, turned on-heel, “What'd you call me?”

He charged the cage again. She whimpered, pushed herself to her knees, rasped, “I said you're a
fucking
tool
. Black's tool. Omega's tool.” Her eyes narrowed. She spit venom, “It doesn't matter who claims you. They use you and you let them.”

West drew his pistol, aimed it on Maggie. He spoke slowly, his upper-lip twitching, “I'd choose my next words
carefully
.”

Her face was red, her eyes leaking. Spittle dripped down her trembling lips, “You don't scare me. You and I both know you can't kill me until Thorne's done. And if you leave without the weapon Black will kill
you
.”

He smiled, “I could kill—”

Maggie forced herself to her feet, doubled over, “Don't delude yourself. You're a pawn. You've
always
been a pawn. You think you hold all the cards, that
you're
in control. Your just another piece to be used and sacrificed as they see fit. You've
never
had control. You left your team
after
you beat them senseless, then expected them to sit-pretty like trained dogs—
like you.
” She rose to stare him down. “You cost
yourself
everything. Took what Black and Omega offered, and lost
all hope
in the process. All this time you've never questioned it. Never once asked, why? You're a junkie, and you don't even know what the weapon
does
.”

“Tell me then,” he mocked.

“Don't tell him anything,” Reese gasped.

He turned the gun on her, “You think someone'll die for
you
?”

“Go to hell,” she wheezed.

“It's meant to exterminate
us
—Humans—we're a blight to a superior species.” Maggie laughed at the irony. “You're exactly what they saw in Humanity that forced them to create it. Every. Single. Person. in the world will die by your hand.”

West's eye twitched, his upper-lip curled, “
No-one
lives forever.”

Maggie's rage built, “So that's how it is? The world dies because you're looking for a fix? You deserve
no
mercy. You won't leave here, West. I promise you'll die by
my
hand.”

West's mouth crept into a wide smile, “Is
that
what you think you've done? Granted mercy?” He laughed wickedly, “Ever wonder how Reese was recruited? Tell her Reese.”

“Fuck you, West.”

“
Tell her
!” He screamed, thrusting the gun forward.

Reese took a deep breath. Maggie whipped around to stop her, but her moment had come. Maggie'd feared Reese's reaction, but her sorry state on the floor looked more pitiful than dangerous. She'd never imagined it this way. She'd trusted Reese, however warily, but never thought her capable of succumbing to the fight. Reese could only force a few words before she had to stop, take another breath; she couldn't be a threat if she wanted to be.

“It… was me,” she said blankly. “
I
killed them. My mom. My dad. My brother.”

Maggie watched Reese's eyes lock on the floor. She shook her head with disgust and shame, “I hated them. My father. Abusive fool. Lost in a studio for hours playing. With colors like a child. My mother worked herself to death. Stupid for allowing him to.”

Maggie watched the hatred in Reese's eyes turn to regret.

West spoke, near-giddy, “And your brother?”

The regret dissolved into trauma. “I. strangled him. with my bare hands.”

“Why?” West demanded with a sick satisfaction. Reese was silent with contemplation. “
Why, Reese!?”
 

She took a deep breath, “Because…”

“Say it,” West said with a sadistic smile.

“He n-never paid like. Like I did.”

“You killed him, because… what?” Maggie asked, confused.

“She killed them, because she's a monster,” West said. His eyes burned with satisfaction. His smile remained as he spoke, “
Like me.”
 

West began a raucous laughter that made Maggie's head spin. Reese's face flickered with remorse, guilt, and a thousand memories and emotions she might never know.

West's voice prompted each one, “She left for basic an angry little girl. Came home a twisted killer. She killed them for breathing. We picked her up. Cops wanted someone to blame and she needed an out.
We
gave her one. She's a psychopath—a
twisted
one.”

Maggie watched Reese stare into nothingness, swallowed by an invisible abyss. She finally understood. Maggie was everything Reese regretted taking from the world; an artist, an innocent, someone that worked themselves to death. Most importantly, she was a road out and a chance at redemption.

“You see? You've changed
nothing
,” He laughed. A faint voice emitted from the radio at his chest. “Go ahead.”

Maggie ignored him, eyes on Reese. West turned away, but she called after him, “Maybe that's the difference, West.” He stopped, turned to her with his sickly smile. “Maybe you
are
beyond redemption.”

“We
all
are, Doherty.”

He turned for the tents across the chamber. Maggie stood, still confounded, as Russell stirred beside her. He groaned, rubbed his throbbing head to catch Maggie motionless in front of him.

“Is everyone alright?”

Maggie hung her head, closed her eyes, “We're… alive.”

34.

Desperate Times

October 9
th
 

6:08 AM

The Omega Device

Thorne's fear pulled at his breaths with a fiendish malice. His eyes darted to the surveillance feeds long enough to know where everyone was. Unfortunately, his decryption was moving too quickly.

While the majority of the Cuneiform on-screen was more complex than even the tomes, the slab's markings required only character translations; a simple, sight-based inference of definitions from his compiled databases.

The lack of further information meant there was no way to determine whether interfacing with the device might also trigger it. In addition, there was nothing more on any part of the stone console to use as a clue. He looked elsewhere through the surveillance cameras, but the walls were smooth, unadulterated beneath the blue-light they emitted.