YEAR 2030 - REBEL BASE - WILTSHIRE
The hub was a hive of activity with everyone getting over-excited at the message that had been transmitted from Numen's memory mapping. Jake and Tank emerged into the outbuilding to find Mike, Sam and a few other guys gearing up and getting weapons ready. Phoenix was frantically trying to improve the distorted signal that she was getting from the monitor, which showed the meeting that had just taken place at the London compound, however, the picture was far from clear and kept breaking up meaning only parts of the conversation were captured.
'What's going on?' enquired Jake.
'There seems to be a technical glitch, a fault or something' moaned Phoenix desperately tapping at the keyboard and tweaking wires to try and improve the signal. Nothing seemed to be working.
'Why are the guys suiting up?' Tank asked, looking across at Mike and the others who were nearly assembled and ready to move out.
Phoenix tried in vain to improve the picture that was flickering through to no avail. 'I don't know what's happening, it was working perfectly until this point, maybe it's just buffering because it is happening right now' she said ignoring his question.
Jake and Tank now looked at the monitor which she was desperately trying to fix, it showed a distorted image of four or five figures in a room around a table, but it kept breaking up and freezing. The audio was not much better but a handful of words could be made out and it was at this point that Jake heard the reference to 'Project Eden' just as Tank had mentioned outside to him and Lexi just after he had caught them kissing. This was not the time to recount that particular event, but it prompted another thought and Jake now scanned the room, where was Lexi?
'Dad, what's going on?' called Tank as Isaac emerged from the crowd. 'Why are the guys suiting up?'
Isaac's normally calm exterior had been replaced by one of suspicion and concern. 'These images came in a little while ago and like I said some Project Eden or something like that was mentioned' he explained, 'that's why I asked you to get Jake'.
Tank was getting irritable, was no one capable of answering a simple question around here? Isaac detected the anger welling up inside his son.
'A location was disclosed in the footage and it's nearby. I'm going to send a unit to check it out' he said.
'What's there?' enquired Jake not fully on top of the situation.
Isaac shook his head. 'We don't know, but we were kind of hoping you would' he said coldly, far removed from the warm welcome he had afforded Jake just a day or so ago.
Jake was beginning to feel as though all of the hope and expectation that people here had on him was perhaps misguided. They seemed to assume a lot of knowledge he did not have, particularly around this mysterious activity of the Empire. He was as in the dark about Project Eden as the rest of them and was starting to feel a bit out of his depth.
'I said to Tank on the way here, that I have never heard of a Project Eden. Honestly, Isaac, you have to believe me' he pleaded.
'I want to believe you Jake, but from the parts of the conversation that Phoe has been able to piece together you are implicated as being part of this top secret military project' said Isaac sternly. 'You are telling me that the words Project Eden or Porton Down, Salisbury, mean absolutely nothing to you?'
The discussions all around them had faded into quiet murmurings and everyone was now looking at Jake with a suspicion that he had not experienced since the days of being a young boy unable to bond or make friends with kids his own age. He had always been an outsider until he came here. It had always been just him and Max.
Max was now beside him, faithful as ever and faced the stares from the gathering with his master. Jake was certain he had never heard of any of these things. What the hell did a top secret military project have to do with him? He had spent most of his life on the run and this place that Isaac was talking about was right here.
You remember your mother kid? Max's voice echoed in his head.
Jake now averted his gaze from the rest of the room and looked deep into the American Staffordshire Terrier's eyes. What about my mother?
Before we left your Dad took us to her grave.
The hairs on Jake's neck and arms all stood to attention as the picture of his mother's gravestone flashed into his memory, Max may have been on to something.
'I might not know anything about a Project Eden and I have no idea where Porton Down is or what happens there' said Jake slowly before taking a deep breath.
'But-' urged Isaac.
'It may be a coincidence, it may be nothing' said Jake. 'But when I was a little boy my father sent me away to protect me from what was coming, from the very people who have destroyed the world and your lives' he continued trying to reason with them. 'Anyway, before I left and became Jake Harding, Hunter, Wade and all the other names and alias's I was given, I was known by my mother's name. My mother was Marie Eden and she and my father never married'.
A thoughtful silence descended. Jake's head now hung heavily, had he just uncovered one of those secrets that in hindsight you wish you had never found? What if he had been part of some top-secret military experiment, it would have explained a lot, but what if it was a coincidence or perhaps his mother had been involved and it had nothing to do with him? No matter what way he tried to play it out in his mind, there was something there that needed answers and it seemed that Porton Down may have some of those.
Isaac took Jake's head in his hands and kissed him on the top of his head. 'I told you before, you are safe here' he said with his soft tone returning. 'There is no certainty that this Project Eden has anything to do with you, but you never know Jake, it may have the answers that you are looking for. It might also hold the key to our victory against the Empire'.
It had been the first time that Jake had been treated with such affection and warmth in a very long time. For a boy now entering into manhood, he was very emotionally under-developed having constantly been on the run and focussed on survival. He had not had many reliable figures in his life to this point. Isaac’s fatherly support was something he had was growing accustomed to and the idea of displeasing him did not sit well. With this gesture of reassurance, the swarming butterflies in Jake’s stomach began to abate.
'I have to go with them' said Jake.
'I'm not sure that is a good idea' said Isaac hesitantly. 'Phoe still hasn't managed to unlock the code to the mainframe and it might be a trap to capture you'.
'I have to go. If this really is to do with me surely I'm the most likely to remember and know what we are looking for' he reasoned. 'Besides, I can't just sit back here and do nothing'.
'I'll go with him' announced Lexi having suited herself up for action and recovered from her intoxicated state.
'Me too' chimed Tank heading off to gather his rifle.
Me too. Max barked.
Isaac could have given every reason under the sun as to why they should not go but he knew that resistance was futile and he had no right telling them what to do, but Tank was his son and he did not want him getting in harm's way.
'Go, but be careful' he said looking to both Jake and Lexi.
Isaac then went after Tank to reason with him to stay. Lexi was now beside Jake and handed him one of the nuclear pulse rifles that foot soldiers of the Empire carried. She was all business.
'You might need that. Just aim and fire until they stop' she said before heading off after the assorted crew of armed men that had assembled by the convoy of trucks.
Jake held the rifle in his hands, it was much heavier than he had anticipated. He had seen firsthand the immense damage that they could inflict and he hoped that he would not have to use it, he had never fired a gun in his life. Max came up alongside him now and rubbed his head against his leg.
How did you remember that day, you were barely a puppy? Jake sublimated to him.
It was the first and last day I ever saw you cry, until today. Max replied.
More importantly for that matter, when exactly did you start to read?
Max barked and growled at him. I might be a dog, but that doesn't make me retarded! Humans! Such an arrogant species!
Max bounded off in search of the crew, with Jake laughing behind him.
The two transporters carrying Jake and the others to Porton Down had left about twenty minutes ago. In that time Phoenix had been furiously trying to fix the connection problem to the message from Numen's memory map. It continued to run on a loop with the image and audio still heavily distorted. She had double checked everything twice and still, there was not an explanation as to what was causing the problem. Phoenix decided to run the checks for the third time, exasperated with the situation.
Isaac then joined her in the hub having failed to win the argument with his son, who had joined the others on the mission to Porton Down.
'Anything I can do to help?' he said, clearly startling her to the point that she banged her head against the underside of the main computer station.
She emerged from beneath the desk clearly irritated rubbing her head from the bump. She rearranged her glasses to identify the cause of her current discomfort to see the towering figure of her leader.
'You know what, I have checked and double checked every cable, connection and I cannot for the life of me work out why that,' she snarled pointing at the flickering monitor, 'is not working'.
He helped her up and she rubbed her sore head. It was clear from his expression that Isaac was not having one of his better days either.
'You ok?' she asked.
'I couldn't stop him' he said referring to Tank. 'That boy is so headstrong, he gets it from his mother' he complained.
Phoenix reasoned that her head pain was probably inconsequential in the circumstances and assumed a more empathic tone.
'Mike and Sam will look out for him and keep him out of trouble I'm sure' she said trying to reassure him.
'You know, it doesn't matter. I can't protect him for much longer. What we are embarking on here, will inevitably lead to situations just as dangerous, if not more so' he said philosophically.
What he was saying was true, this was no game, this was a battle for freedom against a very powerful foe who would not relinquish the power they had usurped without a fight. He had spent his entire adult life at war, whether it was when he served his country in the incursions in the Middle East or as the leader of a band of rebels against fellow rebels or the Empire. It seemed to him that life was characterised by fighting for the hope that in the future things would be peaceful, calm and free. Each time he had entered the war zone he had done so hoping that it would be the last time, but for each regime that had been toppled another had taken its place. Of course, over the years he had learned that the very regimes he had played a role in overthrowing had been enemies of the Empire, mere stepping stones to their plan for the New World Order that was now in place. Peace, hope, and happiness would not be secured until the Empire was destroyed entirely. Only then would there be a chance for the kind of world he hoped that Tank and his children, when he had them, could live in free from tyranny. Until then danger, loss, and bloodshed would be an inevitability.
'I just hope they are careful and come back safely' he said.
Phoenix gave him a big hug and a smile. 'They will be fine I'm sure'.
The flickering monitor carrying the image from the Council meeting now went blank bringing a look of panic on Phoenix's face. She pulled away from Isaac and rushed to the screen checking the connections of the foot soldier surrogate whom Numen's thoughts were being transferred through, everything was in place, but the look of alarm on her face grew with each second passed and wire checked.
'What's wrong?' Isaac asked desperate to help her.
'The connection has gone' she said, her face casting a fearful expression.
In her panic, she ran across to the main computer terminal which was filtering through the gathered images in search of the passcode from Numen's mind. The seven letter code was only half decoded, with four of the letters confirmed. She hurriedly wrote them down fearing that the data was about to be lost.
'Is it a virus?' Isaac asked entirely powerless to assist her.
'I don't know, I don't think so' she said hurriedly tapping on the keyboards and checking the screens.
The monitor continued to decrypt the code and filtered through the images that had been downloaded already. Despite her alarm, Phoenix could not find any threat to the programmes she was running, it was all as it should be. She turned back to the surrogate and the blank screen, all the information that had been downloaded was secure and running through an array of decryption and translation software programmes, the problem was that no new information was being gathered. There was only one logical explanation to what had occurred.
'He has found the bug' she blurted. 'He knows we planted it on him'.
‘Who?’ countered Isaac still unsure of what was happening.
‘Numen. He knows. It is the only explanation as to why the tracer has stopped’. Her anxiety level was increasing and she was now chewing on her ponytail nervously.
'How?'
'I have no idea, but if he knows about the bug then surely he knows that the guys will be coming after him at Porton Down. We have to warn them' said Phoenix in a hyper state of alert.
Isaac was frozen for just a moment. They had agreed to keep to radio silence to reduce the risk of detection or an inadvertent message that might be intercepted by Numen and his men, revealing their position. They were on their own and Numen seemed to be expecting them.
Phoenix had detected that something was wrong. Isaac’s usually calm exterior had been replaced by one of irritation. His eyes bulging fearfully and he began pacing with agitation.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, not really wanting the answer.
'Get a map that gives me directions to Porton Down and send it to the car. Do it now' he said before sprinting out into the courtyard.
Phoenix had little time to argue and began to search for the map that she could transmit to his handheld. Within a few moments the roaring sound of an engine, tyres squealing, and wheels spinning into action filled the night sky as it shot off through the grounds of the mansion and out into the uncharted roads beyond.
PORTON DOWN RESEARCH FACILITY - NEAR SALISBURY
From the air, the 7000-acre site certainly would not be much to write home about. Many of the buildings that had been used for top secret military research in the past had been left either abandoned or destroyed. The main spanner-shaped building and a few outbuildings that surrounded it were the only ones that had survived over the years.
Very little information was on public record about what had gone on here, there were many conspiracy theories about human and animal testing, as well as suggestions that biological weapons had been designed and tested here. Porton Down was a quiet place just on the outskirts of Salisbury and for many years now had been totally abandoned and left to decay. The two nearest Empire compounds of note were in Bristol to the west and Southampton to the south-east, with the London compound being the next closest some 90 miles away.
The two rebel transporters had come through the unguarded outpost at the front of the site and set down in what had once been a car park for research employees. The place was eerily silent and dimly lit and it was hard to believe that anyone was here, or indeed anything of particular value was left behind.
The group had split up into smaller units of four of five and set about exploring the place. Mike led a group towards the centre which included Jake and Max and a couple of others. Lexi and Tank led their group towards the east wing of the giant spanner-shaped building, whilst Sam took his troops towards the western side.
They all moved in their respective directions guns at the ready and entirely unsure of what they were looking for. Mike waved Jake and his team towards the entrance which had once been a heavily secured entry into the heart of the facility but was now destroyed and open freely welcoming them and anyone else in. It was very dark inside and the long straight corridors had become thick with dirt and damp from the exposure to the elements and having been neglecting over the years. Papers and reports were strewn about the place in a manner that suggested that the site had been raided and ransacked on many occasions given the scale of the mess.
Mike ushered the two other gunmen onwards, signalling for them to keep their eyes open and to check the rooms ahead. He encouraged Jake to stay behind him with Max staying in close quarters. Jake had hoped that when he got here, any memories would resurface and guide him to whatever it was that Numen was looking for, but so far nothing had registered as familiar.
They continued slowly and surely down the corridor peering into the diverse rooms that were littered with a range of scientific equipment and paperwork, none of which had survived the ransacking intact.
To the east of Jake and Mike's position, Lexi and Tank had spread their team around the horseshoe of the eastern wing and they began to enter the building from all sides. Just as the others had discovered, there was rubbish everywhere and any previous security systems that had been in place were long gone. They too began to sweep through the corridors, checking the rooms as they went. Still, an eerie silence swept through the place with no sign of Numen or affiliates of the Empire.
'I'll check upstairs on the first floor' Lexi whispered to Tank as he continued to cautiously inspect the rooms near the base of the stairwell.
'I'll finish off here and then I'll come and find you' he replied in a hushed tone not fitting of his large frame.
They then separated out and continued to search the premises for any clues about Project Eden that might be of use and shed some light on its mysterious past and connection to Jake.
Lexi, unlike the others, knew exactly where she was going, having been here before, she knew that there was nothing of note in the core or western wings of the building, she had searched there on her last excursion. She skipped quickly up the steps and made her way to the very end of the corridor, checking intermittently that she was not being followed, keeping her rifle fixed ahead ready to take out any attacker. As she reached the end of the corridor she was met with two doors, one was an exit that led to the stairwell directly to the roof and the other was a part of the building that had no windows both into and out of it. She dropped to her knees at the entrance to the room, taking a quick look to her right for any signs of movement from down the corridor. Having ensured the coast was clear, she pulled out a small screwdriver from her backpack and began to unscrew the screws on the door handle. She had remembered the last time she came here that this room had been locked, so whilst the others had been trying to make sense of Numen's distorted revelations she had gone and got some tools to help her break in.
The first two screws dropped out easily and as Lexi got to work on the third one she checked the path was clear again. Pretty soon she had managed to remove all of the screws and the handle fell away on both sides of the door. She took out a large metal ruler and began toying with the lock until it gave way and the door fell open. After a final check, she went inside and closed the door behind her.
Lexi realised that the room was the length of the entire corridor and was a large rectangular room shrouded at this point in total darkness with the slightest beam of light breaking through the solitary skylight in the centre. She pulled a glow stick from her backpack snapping it to reveal a yellow luminescent glow that brought some of the features of the enormous and expansive room into view.
Behind her was a wall of metal lockers, like the ones that kids had used in school only much larger. As she began to explore the room further she could see a long line of what looked like empty aquariums, above them, hung strange large metal arms that lay dormant and unused. She continued to venture further in, the light from the glow stick only illuminated a small area at a time so she kept walking deeper into the room with more things coming into view with each step.
A series of intact filing cabinets were housed in the corner on the far side of the room. Lexi hurried towards them anticipating that these may contain the files she had been looking for on her previous visits. She put the glow stick between her teeth and placed her rifle on the floor next to the filing cabinets and pulled on the large drawer ready to quickly scour through the files inside.
The drawer was much heavier than she had anticipated and it required all of her strength to yank it open and as it gave way she was catapulted unexpectedly backwards onto the floor behind her. She landed on her backside with a quivering squeal escaping her lips and the glow stick falling to the floor. The fright of the fall and the shock of what she had opened had been unexpected. As Lexi recovered the luminescent rod and got back to her feet she gave a brief chuckle for having acted rather too much like a girl.
Behind her was a large metal box, like an oversized chest, she had not noticed it until the fall. She shone the light on it and it had an imprint of a human hand on the top, bedded into the casing which she was drawn to momentarily but then remembered the filing cabinet on her left that had caused her to fall. The mysterious casket could wait, she needed to check the files.
The draw had opened out into the room a good bed length and on closer inspection, it was clear that it was not a receptacle for paper files, in the drawer lay a motionless, no doubt dead, human figure encased in a body bag. Lexi covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming. She took hold of the next drawer and pulled on it, which also had a body bag in it. She did this all the way along the bottom row and soon there were five giant drawers, each containing a body bag.
The curiosity had now entirely consumed her and all thoughts of files and top secret reports had vacated Lexi's mind. What the hell had they been doing here?
She crouched down beside the first body that she had revealed, the cold from the rear refrigeration made her breath come out smoky. She shone the light down into the drawer and then took a deep breath. Slowly she unzipped the black bag to reveal the corpse inside. The smell alone brought her close to the point of vomiting, it was like opening a packet of processed meat, and the gassy stench was assaulting her nasal passage and bringing water to her eyes. To her surprise the body inside had not decomposed, having clearly been preserved through refrigeration. It was a male torso, deathly white almost blue skin, but most definitely human in form. She waved the glow stick over the upper part of his torso to his face and it was this that had forced her to take a step back. He had no face. It was as if someone had erased all of his features away leaving a smooth skin over his skull. Whatever he or it was it had no nose, no hair, ears or lips, just a flat skinned canvas that housed dark black vacant eyes staring into an abyss.
Lexi quickly checked another one of the corpses, another male, but again with the same faceless head and black eyes like the one before. She desperately wanted to inspect further but the light from the luminescent stick was starting to dim. She pushed the faceless corpses back into the refrigeration unit and took a last glance at the unique chest she had discovered when she fell down. Tank would be looking for her by now she reasoned, so she should leave, but the lure of the metal chest with a hand imprint was too much to bear. Just a quick peak she told herself, and then she would go and find the others and tell them that she had found nothing.
She tried to find a catch or lever to gain entry into the casket but there seemed to be absolutely no way in. The glow stick became dimmer, but she could not leave without seeing what was inside. She kept searching but to no avail, there was no way in, just a weird hand imprint that was perhaps left there from someone else who had tried to get in. She imagined someone had tried and failed before her, slamming their hand down in frustration having been unable to gain entry. That explanation made absolutely no sense to her, so she did something else that made even less sense and placed her right hand into the imprint. Nothing happened. Frustrated she slammed her hand down into the imprint and cursed it angrily in a manner not befitting a lady.
It was hardly hey presto, but whatever she had done had now brought the casket to life and it began whirring from the inside and lights that had been previously hidden began flashing and brightening the room. After a few moments of activity, the casket popped open a bright green glow oozing from within. Lexi's gut instinct was to run like the wind, but something pulled her closer to the lid of the casket where the light was emanating and sparks of energy seemed to be churning from within. As she lifted the lid and took a look inside, the colour from her cheeks disappeared and her heart rate shot into overdrive. The shock fired through a sequence of synapses in her brain that for the moment made it difficult for her to command her limbs to run. In her head, she could hear her own voice screeching at her to run, but she was temporarily paralysed looking down at the glow from the box that shifted through all of the colours of the rainbow. This was clearly what Project Eden was all about, and no file or dossier could explain it quite like what she was witnessing.
Lexi soon found the energy to force herself into action and slammed the casket lid down, she cursed herself for having not followed her gut as she grabbed her rifle from beside the giant refrigeration unit with the faceless bodies inside. She needed to get the hell out of here. As she turned to run she slammed into a large black figure, hard as a wall and fell to the floor dropping her rifle and glow stick to the ground. She peered up and saw a gargantuan tower of a man, stood over her.
'Jesus Christ Tank, you scared the shit out of me!'
The fear and relief swept over her body, thankful for seeing him in this godforsaken place. She got to her feet again.
'We need to get the hell out of here' she exclaimed, looking directly at him.
Just then a cold chill swept down her spine and set into motion a flood of unbridled and uncontrolled chemical impulses. Within an instant of seeing his cold, vacuous expression the counter opposite to his usually warm, genial and polite facade, Lexi knew something was wrong. Tank's body collapsed in a lifeless heap right in front of her. The sound of footsteps echoed from the other side of the room, slowly getting louder as they closed in on her. Lexi never looked up, her eyes were fixed on Tank, prostrate and beyond help on the floor. Tears streamed down her pale cheeks and the scream she urged to ring out Tank's cruel death never came.
The next thing Lexi knew she was floating off the ground and barely able to breathe. Her emerald eyes swept from the dead corpse of Tank into the cold blue stare of another ebony giant of a man. The grip around her neck tightened and the last thing she saw was her attacker smirking whilst he held her off the ground with little effort, stroking his silver half goatee with his vacant hand. Numen said something to her as she drifted into a state of semi-consciousness, but she did not manage to make out his exact words, but she did hear the whirring blades of a helicopter swinging overhead before everything went very dark.