YEAR 2030 - LONDON COMPOUND - UCCA HEADQUARTERS
The relative solitude within the now empty shell of the Empire's security and surveillance mainstay was in stark contrast to the brewing violence out on the streets. Jake and Phoenix had not taken the lack of visible security for granted though and had slowly ventured along the corridors in search of the epicentre of technology that housed the elusive mainframe. Max had surged ahead of them to check the coast was clear, the logic being that he was less likely to draw attention and was much smaller than the two of them. He could also ensure that they did not find themselves suddenly falling foul to an ambush.
The hollowed out building was awash with empty stations and vacant rooms following the mass evacuation that had taken place. Jake had been encouraged by the reaction of the operatives who had very quickly assessed the opportunity that had arisen, rising up and venting suppressed wrath against their captors with very little thought given to the potential repercussions that would follow. It was more in hope than expectation that this next phase that he and Phoenix were embarking upon would generate the catalyst to spur the rest of the dream walkers to join the cause.
Max had come to a halt up ahead having discovered the entrance into the giant domed structure of the surveillance and monitoring teams. The images from across the globe continued to flicker and flash images just as they had done before the incursion. The colourful symbols of incidents and events still not particularly worthy of note, with the exception of the far wall of monitors designated for this particular compound and ones located in Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and the other main bases in the country. The monitors here showed that additional security had been put in a state of high alert and now lots of amber symbols seemed to be on the move to secure the grounds.
Jake now caught a brief glimpse into the large glass windows of the dome where the terminals had been completely deserted. The monitors designated for London were emblazoned with lots of red symbols indicating a state of high alert and whilst Jake could surmise that a large deployment of reinforcements had been sent out in the wake of the break-in, the images on the large television screens across the walls were more graphic. He could now make out the same footage that was being broadcast into the heart of the city with many hundred armed guard patrols closing in on Tower Bridge.
'We need to get in there, otherwise, everyone is going to get slaughtered' he said, the alarm easily detected in his tone as he pointed to the screen.
'That's only half the problem' Phoenix said now pointing at the guards in the room still desperately trying to free the president from the mainframe vestibule. 'Plus we need to figure out a way to get in, this place requires biometric markers just to open the doors and the last time I checked none of us is security cleared'?
Jake cursed himself for not having brought the girl from the doorway with him, she would no doubt have had clearance. He considered running back out into the carnage to retrieve her or any of the operatives, but he knew they did not have time.
'Can't you do some kind of computer nerd thing to open the door?' Jake said to Phoenix in a feeble attempt for an easy solution.
He did not even need to look at the brown-eyed beauty to know that he had just proposed a rather stupid question. Until the mainframe was disabled and she was left to work her magic, Phoenix was just a passenger.
The frustration at having come this far and being so close and yet unable to get in through the door sparked an angry exchange between the two and they began bickering like school children. Max left them to it and charged at the scanner beside the door. He threw the full weight of his body onto the flat panel kicking the biometric analysis sequence into action. The strobe lights ran through their sequence his paws and brain being scanned and then a stream of faces and records began to be filtered rapidly in front of him as the system searched for his records in the system. After a moment of checking, unsurprisingly the system determined that he had no right of access and set off the internal alarm.
'Max, what the hell are you playing at?' Jake yelled once he realised what the dog was doing, bringing the quarrel with Phoenix to an abrupt end.
Max simply turned back to them panting. It was almost as if he was smiling and Jake could now see that the president's security detail's efforts to get into the vestibule had desisted. They were now charging towards the entrance, guns locked and loaded, ready to address the threat that had emerged.
I suggest you two get out of sight and follow me in, Max suggested with a restrained bark.
Jake quickly pulled Phoenix aside and covered her mouth with his hand using Max's presence at the security entrance and the angle of the glass wall behind them to evade being seen. He ducked down behind a pillar, keeping out of sight of the door where Max waited patiently for the guards to arrive and the stretch of glass panels that curved away from the door to his current hiding place. Jake planned to creep up on them whilst Max provided a distraction and then they would be in, Uncle Frank would then be able to get them into the vestibule where he was holding the president hostage.
The plan that had now formed in Jake's head was beginning to roll out beautifully, the guards had arrived at the door, the sight of an American Staffordshire Terrier not quite what they had anticipated. They began to peer through the glass for signs of an ambush but could not see anyone in the vicinity. The first of the two then set about activating the security system to open the security door, Jake could hear them talking about getting rid of the pesky dog in case he kept on setting off the alarms. He figured this might be a good time to enlist his mind control abilities and perhaps take control of them before Max came to any harm, but he decided to wait until the door opened just in case his meddling affected the process and locked them out permanently.
In his rationalising of the situation, Jake had completely forgotten about Phoenix, whom he had tightly gripped to his chest, his hand firmly pressed down on her mouth. Right then as his concentration on the activity of the guards was at its peak, she sunk her teeth into his hand forcing him to release her. The catch on the door was beginning to unlock and Max darted a look back at his master having clearly heard the suppressed scream and stream of swear words that had been channelled on their private internal network.
Phoenix's voice of protest and the sound of the door opening coincided. Jake without hesitation stemmed the flow of the sentence coming out of her mouth by pulling her close and kissing her firmly on the mouth. It was a rather unconventional approach but had done the job of keeping her quiet in that crucial moment. Jake had only lingered there a moment, Phoenix's body had gone rigid with shock and after Max's words to act filtered through his head he pulled away. Phoenix was literally speechless, her eyes asking a thousand and one questions that her mouth could not.
Jake had now jumped to his feet and was charging towards the door, his movements drawing the guards' attention away from Max. He unleashed the full force of his weapon, taking the startled guards out before they could return fire and both wailed in agony as the skin and bones melted away into the vacuum of the gunshot wounds leaving a thin cloud of dust and smoke in its wake.
Max charged into the vacated space before the door could slam down, the alarms ringing out again to raise an alert of a security breach. Jake slid under the ever decreasing gap using the rifle as a prop to leave enough space for Phoenix to follow. She was still a few steps behind them dazed by the unexpected kiss.
'Come on Phoe get under here' Jake said, struggling to keep the door ajar as the alarm continued to sound and the gun started to creak under the weight of the door.
Phoenix tossed her backpack under the small gap before throwing herself head first into a dive. She slid through the tiny opening and Jake pulled her all the way through just in time as the rifle gave way and the door slammed shut. Phoenix rolled onto her back and could see the array of monitors and computer terminals all around. If she had died, she was most surely in her very own version of heaven right now. This thought had barely begun to marinade than she could see Jake hurtling through the air towards her fallen frame. Before she could even muster the energy to scream, he landed heavily on top of her covering her entire body with his. A voice in her head reminded her to pick up with him the finer points of physical etiquette between the two sexes, but just as she was about to push him off and protest, the glass behind them exploded.
The door and adjoining wall erupted, sending shards of broken glass all across the room. The nuclear rifle that he had used to prop the door open had been severely damaged and had blown up. Jake's head now lifted from the crevice in her shoulder and his brown eyes met hers again, a small smirk visible on his face. Before she could give him both barrels about these two physically inappropriate advances he had imposed on her a cloud of gas swept violently through the room burning up like napalm as it came into contact with the fire and fumes from the explosion. The two of them remained pinned to the floor as the flames burned up the gas and the remnants of what was in the gun. The weird predicament was not lost on either of them and when their eyes met again, Phoenix and then Jake burst into laughter. To make the situation complete, a torrential downpour descended down onto them from the sprinkler systems above. The monitors all around the room began to spark and fuse wildly as the impact of the flames and water took hold. One by one the monitors began to fade to black, the large screens on the walls following suit, but none of this had any effect on the soaked young couple now hungrily kissing one another on the floor. They had managed to evade certain death over the last twenty-four hours more than once, but with chaos reigning all around them, Phoenix and Jake gave way to a brief moment of desire.
It had felt like they had been down on the ground for an hour or more, but Jake and Phoenix's moment of passion had been incredibly brief. Max having taken cover during the blast, had been barking at them, with Jake choosing to ignore his internal demands to get on with what they had come here to do. As the last of the water came down, he now gazed into Phoenix's eyes wishing that it was all over already.
'Can I ask you something?' Phoenix said finally amidst Max's incessant barking. 'Why did you kiss me before, out there?'
Jake rolled off of her and they both now sat up, the sprinkler systems having soaked the inner workings of the surveillance hub. His attention was drawn to Frank in the vestibule just behind them who had obviously just witnessed everything that had happened and was urging his adopted nephew to join him inside. Frank's face was alarmed and uneasy. Jake now turned back to Phoenix feeling a little awkward and embarrassed by the whole affair.
'The guards were about to open the door, you had just bitten me and I wanted to make sure you kept quiet so that you didn't give our position away' he explained now getting to his feet and helping her up.
It was abundantly apparent from the disappointment that she now exuded, that this had not been the explanation she had been hoping for.
'So you couldn't have just told me to be quiet or covered my mouth up?' Phoenix asked becoming a little argumentative.
Jake rolled his eyes. 'You bit me when I did that!'
'Count yourself lucky I didn't again' she said huffily. 'So none of that meant anything?'
Frank was now tapping out a tune on the glass of the vestibule that seemed to Jake to translate as an appeal to proceed with shutting down the mainframe. In truth he was not really all that sure why he had chosen to kiss Phoenix on either occasion and whilst he did not regret it, the situation with Lexi did not feel fully resolved. Jake had never really had to address feelings like this in his life and whilst it had felt amazing just moments ago, the stone cold reality of the present was making him feel very uneasy. He just wanted to run away and hide from it all and as the tapping got louder from Frank he saw a way of avoiding the discomfort of the intimate encounter for a little longer.
'We really should get in there. A lot of people are counting on us. We can pick this up later' he said barely looking at her.
Phoenix sighed a deep, frustrated sigh and then snatched her backpack up and stormed across the soaked floor towards the vestibule. Jake followed behind.
They were now face-to-face with Frank, he had Van Duyn pinned down on the floor with his gun pointed at the rotund leader’s bleeding head.
'I can't get you in until we start the reset, the security override won't allow non-authorised personnel in' explained Frank. 'I have entered the two parts of the code that I can, but he needs to do the last bit. The mainframe cannot be shut down until the final part of the code is entered and he successfully passes the biometric analyses' he said in frustration.
He then grabbed hold of Van Duyn and pushed him up against the window, his face becoming contorted and squished against the glass. The blood from his head wound had congealed in his thick matted hair. It had been a while since Jake had seen the president, he remembered the situation at Desire, the very thought of how the disgusting and evil man had touched him. It was clear to the president that he had met Jake before, the recognition lighting up his face.
'I know you boy' he said through the glass. 'You were the one who forgot to place my order' he said in reference to the meeting at the seedy venue when Jake had read his mind.
Van Duyn's hand came up to the glass trying to touch Jake's face now so close to his in a moment of instinctive weakness. The boy had been on his mind a great deal this past month or so and he had not realised until now that this was the same person who Numen had been so desperate to capture.
'I don't know what you want me to do' Frank exclaimed. 'He won't comply even with a gun to his head'.
The reference made the image of his father's demise flash into Jake's head, sparking the original plan. It was a moment of clarity that he had needed to put the whole issue with Phoenix and Lexi to one side.
'Let him go and step back to the terminal' Jake said as he attempted to clear his mind and take possession of Europa's soon to be evicted President.
Frank was about to protest, but the look on the face of his young nephew made him comply with the request. He stepped back awestruck by what he was seeing. Jake's eyes had shifted from a caramel colour to a bright blue and white glow and having released Van Duyn, the president had not tried to run although he was giving some resistance to whatever Jake was doing to him.
'You can't make me do it' said Van Duyn labouredly, trying to fight off the invisible demon that had taken hold of him trying to drill itself into his subconscious.
Just you watch me. Jake said telepathically. The voice ringing out the president's mind sent a faint shiver of fear jangling down his spine.
Van Duyn's body was sucked up tight to the glass now by an invisible vacuum. He was held there in a state of total paralysis trying desperately to fight back but achieving nothing. Van Duyn tried to shout out a threat but his words were muffled and incoherent as he slowly lost complete control of his body to the young man on the other side of the glass whose eyes glowed with a powerful dark energy.
Within a few moments the rotund leader of Europa was trudging towards the terminal completely against his will but the boy's grip on him was so great that any effort to resist was easily repelled. The look on Frank's face was one of abject horror and incomprehension having never seen the innate abilities of his adopted nephew, a boy whom he looked upon as a son, in action. Van Duyn was now up alongside him his limbs moving in a puppet-like fashion as Jake imposed his will on their every movement.
Both Phoenix and Frank looked on in astonishment and disbelief as Van Duyn's seven digit passcode was entered on the screen, triggering the activation sequence of the mainframe. The system then began to verify the biometric markers of both Frank and the president who was still under Jake's spell. The iris scanner and palm readers had completed their checks and now it was the brain function scanning check.
Jake feared that his possession of Van Duyn might impact on the check and prevent success so he was about to try something he had never been able to do before.
'Uncle Frank' he said still in his trance like state. 'Get your gun on him and make sure he doesn't move'.
As the system began to run scans on Frank's brain he took his gun and pointed it at Van Duyn's skull. The president now slowly seemed to wake up from the sedated state, but still unable to fully move his limbs as Jake drifted out of his head. The brain scan now scaled down his face, the geothermal image of his brain coming up on screen as Frank's scan proved successful.
'You won't get away with this' Van Duyn growled angrily, trying to disrupt the scan.
A few moments later the mainframe announced that the system was in safe mode and requested whether it should reset. Van Duyn bellowed his protestations loudly against the request to do so, wriggling and trying to get free from the invisible sack that held him up to his neck, but Frank just smiled at him.
'It's not a voice activated reset dipshit' he mocked as he slammed his hand down on the button on the terminal activating the system reset.
The door to the vestibule shot open and Jake and Phoenix entered. Now was the time to really bring the revolution to life. Phoenix got to work, pulling devices and cables from her backpack, the situation with Jake now far back in her brain. She knew that time was of the essence and the sooner she could take over the system and render it beyond the control of the Empire the greater the chance that they could succeed in freeing all of those brainwashed minds.
Van Duyn was raging, spitting fury and bile into the room. 'You're a traitor Frank, you are going to pay for this' he bellowed. 'You realise what you are doing, you are helping terrorists to bring disorder to the streets'.
Frank swung a firm right hand catching Van Duyn full in the face, blood flashing from his nose. Under normal circumstances, the heavy blow would have knocked him to the ground but Jake's grip on him had made him spring back up.
'I helped the real terrorists on their way up' said Frank as he hit Van Duyn in the stomach. 'All you people did was use these innocent people to do your bidding. They are slaves to your regime and enough is enough'.
At that moment Jake relinquished his grip on the president and Frank's second shot to his face resulted in the rotund leader collapsing to the ground like a fallen tree.
'It's good to see you boy' Frank said opening his arms to his nephew.
For the first time to Jake's recollection, the two of them embraced. It was a strange and liberating feeling, Jake having never experienced his uncle's guard being dropped like this and sharing his affection. As they pulled apart, the beaming smile on Frank's face, an image worthy of a record in the history books, was infectious. Now Jake and even Phoenix who had looked up from the terminal when the two of them had hugged reflected his happy disposition.
'When this is all over, we are going to have a barbeque and a beer' said Frank. 'Then you can tell me all about your girlfriend over here' he continued embarrassing the pair of youngsters.
Phoenix pretended that she had not heard him and furiously tapped away at the terminal keyboard and fiddled with some wires. The fake performance was a cover to avoid any further embarrassment. She was waiting for the system to reset and to open the command screen so that she could plant the virus that would shut down the Empire's network and lock them out permanently. Once she had assumed complete autonomy over the system, she would be able to upload the footage of the truth to be broadcast to the world, loosening the grip of power that the authoritarian regime had over its inhibited citizens.
Max was barking again and this time Jake had heard his warning clearly. The smile on his face fell into a frown and Jake's eyes lifted to the roof.
'What's wrong?' Frank asked, detecting the alarm in his nephew's demeanour, but now his and Phoenix's eyes were raised to the roof as well.
The sound of the rotating blades of helicopters swamped in overhead and through the domed glass ceiling of the mainframe building they could see Chimera operatives swooping down ropes from the choppers and on to the roof.
'How's it coming Phoe?' Jake asked as he scoured the outer room for a weapon.
'I'm going to need more time' she said the alarm audible in her response.
Jake snatched a couple of handguns from where the two guards had been executed. While they may not have carried the same punch as the assault rifle he had used earlier they were certainly more advanced and capable than the antique his uncle was carrying.
'You want one?' Jake offered one of the modern guns to Frank.
Frank had picked up the president and led him out of the vestibule his contraband Sig Sauer P238 pressed up against Van Duyn's head. 'Not a chance. I want them to know that Frank McQuaid is old school and not afraid of a bit of blood' he replied, his smile returning.
Max now charged past them through the blown opening and into the body of the headquarters, Chimera agents having gained entry from the roof.
'You follow the mutt and I'll try to use him as leverage and draw them away' said Frank referring to Van Duyn who was slowly coming around in the headlock Frank had on him. 'Look after yourself out there and we'll meet up when all the madness is done with'.
Jake was just about to run after Max when Frank called after him. He stopped in his tracks and looked back over his shoulder to his uncle.
'I'm proud of you boy and I know your folks would have been too' he said.
Jake smiled back at him for a moment before charging into the belly of the abandoned building to help Max.
Frank had Van Duyn in his clutches, the Sig Sauer fixed tightly to his temple. Frank looked over his shoulder to Phoenix in the vestibule working furiously.
'Lock yourself in there girly' he said to her.
'It's Phoenix' she said curtly.
'Well, Phoenix, you can call me Uncle Frank' he replied softly, 'but as soon as you can lock yourself in there and don't let anyone in. That place is like a fortress, no bullets, rockets or anything will get through. We're counting on you'.
He did not look back. He just kept walking the president towards the destroyed doorway ready to play his part. Frank could hear the agents of his enemy, the boots landing on the roof and tapping their way along the ceiling towards the roof hatch. The boy and his dog had gone past the likely point of entry and Frank hoped that this would mean they would be safe. He heard the capsule close behind him meaning that Phoenix was secured inside and that too brought a smile to his face. If he did not make it out of here, at least Jake might have a chance of happiness just like the dream Frank had for him. However, the now former Director of Security and Surveillance had a retirement party to get to and he fully intended to be the star of the show.