Armageddon, page 19
part #9 of Col Sec Series
“It was a mess in the end but we did manage to salvage something out of it and successfully covered our tracks. There will be no thread leading to us from anything Col Sec has learned so you need have no worries on that score,” the other said confirming what he had expected. He had been part of the New Order for as long as he could remember so he was well aware of how far they would go to prevent themselves from being uncovered.
“That’s good to know but this situation should never have gotten this far in the first place. Whose idea was it to use Franklin?” he asked.
“Haskins, but again, don’t worry he has been taken care of. He will never bother us again, his assets have been absorbed by us and the rest of his family will pay the usual price for treason as a message to any others who might have similar ideas.”
He thought about that, allowing it to sink in. It was a terrible price to pay. It was harsh indeed but what they were doing was crucial to the improvement of humanity and no mistakes could be tolerated.
“Okay, you mentioned that you managed to salvage something from it all, what was that?” he asked finally.
“The remains of two of their operatives from their vaunted Wildfire Team, killed in the line of duty.”
“Yes, I heard about that, how is that beneficial to us?”
Before the other could answer he heard someone approaching. “I have to go, you can fill me in on this on your next update,” he said then ended the call turning to greet those he heard.
“Natasha, you’re back, good to see you again Jake,” Admiral Garvey said smiling as his daughter and her lover approached from the gardens.
“Yes, we thought we’d spend some time together before Jake’s next deployment,” Natasha told him.
“I doubt they’ll send you out anytime soon son, you need time to cope with what you went through and deal with the grief,” Garvey said.
The two of them walked past the tall, retired Admiral up the steps into the massive Georgian style home.
“Thank you, sir,” Jake said.
“As always, son, our home is your home while you’re on shore leave,” Garvey said as he watched them enter his home.
Keeping secrets had been a large part of his career so it came easily to him to keep this one from his friends and family. He took comfort in the knowledge that they would all benefit from it once the New Order took control.
As things were going, that would be far sooner than they had anticipated.
Looking out over the grounds belonging to his home he breathed a heavy, yet contented, sigh.
Not long to wait now, not long at all.
Epilogue
Somewhere in the Mohave Desert
“That is remarkable,” he said.
He had been taken down to the basement level of the facility deep in the Mohave Desert where no eyes could snoop on them. To the casual observer the facility was just a bunch of run-down shacks in need of repair, not worth bothering to look at any further than that.
What it was in fact was a top-secret scientific facility. Deep underground experiments of all sorts were carried out but what interested him the most was what he had come here for today.
The New Order had captured the remains of two dead operatives, and remains, was literally what that meant. All that was left of the two men following the explosion that had killed them were a few body parts.
“You managed to reconstruct these from all that was left? What are they, clones?” he asked as he stared through the glass partition at the two tubes standing upright facing him with the top section open so that he could see what was inside. What each of the tubes contained was a man, a young man in perfect physical condition, sleeping, or what appeared to be sleeping.
“That’s right, they are indeed clones. We threw away the source material once we had everything of use from them and we made these. We can now make more of them, any time we want. Not only have we manufactured these two but we also improved them from the originals,” explained the man standing next to him. He was wearing a lab coat and was clearly in charge of this operation.
“Explain to me slowly, using words that those of us who don’t speak geek can understand, Professor,” the man wearing the dark suit said not bothering to hide the sarcasm from his tone.
Lab coat sighed then started speaking, slowly for effect, “When we examined the tissues we noticed something remarkable about them. They had been enhanced in some way. I have no doubt that when these two had been alive they were stronger and faster than any normal human being. Don’t ask me how it was done because whatever had been given them had been absorbed into their system. Starting from scratch though, we were able to give them a reinforced skeletal structure and increased their muscle mass. We also speeded up their metabolism so we hope they can heal faster from injuries that will occur when they are deployed in the field.”
“How soon before they’ll be ready?”
“That’s hard to say. They’ll need time to adjust and train. We can’t simply infuse them with a lifetime of experiences and skills overnight you know.”
“I totally agree, you have three weeks,” Dark suit said then turned and walked away. Without turning to look at the lab-coated head of operations he said, “Keep me informed Professor but don’t keep me waiting.”
Lab coat turned back to the glass partition and looked at the two figures in the containers.
Operating the comm. unit on the wall he said to the two technicians inside with them, “Okay, time to wake them both up, we have work to do so let’s get started.”
As a pulse was sent into the containers Mack Cooper and Joe Vance both opened their eyes.
Fin
For now
Kurt and the rest of the Wildfire Initiative will return soon.
Don't miss out!
Click the button below and you can sign up to receive emails whenever Jan Domagala publishes a new book. There's no charge and no obligation.
https://books2read.com/r/B-A-BABD-ELGS
Connecting independent readers to independent writers.
About the Author
I was born in Staffordshire to a typical working class family.
At school I discovered the joys of reading. I would read almost anything I could get my hands on. My mother took me to join the local library as soon as I could read and from that day on, if it had words on it, I’d read it.
Along with sci fi I’ve always been a fan of action movies and because there were no books that I could find that combined the two, I decided to write the book I wanted to read. After several abortive attempts, around a decade or more ago, the Col Sec series was born. It’s a thrilling action adventure series set in the twenty fifth century that features the exploits of the men and women who look after the security of the Colonial Confederation.
The series began with Ronin and to date is eight books strong with the latest book, War Dogs was released in December 2017.
At the moment I’m working on the next book in the series.
Jan Domagala, Armageddon
