The Omega Sanction by Andrew Scorah (the best ebook reader for android .txt) 📕

They emerged from the ladder into a low lit stone corridor. Jennifer stood shivering despite the exertion from climbing. Billy scuttled along to the bend in the corridor to their left before coming back to reveal it was clear of any enemy.

“How long to the exit from here,” she asked.

“I think we have to walk about one klick from here, I just hope they don’t know about it and have it guarded.”

“Oh, don’t say that, just when I was enjoying myself.”

She smiled thinly before slumping down to the floor.

“What I wouldn't give for a Vodka Martini right now.”

“I’ll make do with an ice cold Bud,” he said.

“If we make it out of here, I’ll buy you one at The Chandelier,” she laughed.

“It’s a deal, we’ll rest here for a minute.”

“How did you do it, Billy? I mean to shoot those men earlier, you always seemed so mild mannered to me.”

Billy smiled, appeared to disappear into the shadows of his past.

“One thing I took from my good for nothing father was, do to others what they are thinking of doing to you, I was bullied a lot at school, he taught me how to fight. Got me into a lot of trouble at first.”

He laughed, a harsh sound, and leaned his head against the wall.

“Anyway, they would have shot us, better them, eh?”

“Indeed.”

“So, what about you? The way you handled that guard, you didn't hesitate.”

“Self-preservation, I think they call it. I know one thing, I have never been so scared in my life.”

The sounds of voices carried along the corridor from around the bend.

“Shit!” He said, grabbing her hand, “Time to run.”

They set off at a brisk pace along the corridor. Both grimacing at the sounds their footfalls made. There was no cover. Nowhere to hide.

Up ahead the tunnel curved to the right. Jennifer looked over her shoulder to see three black uniformed men appear behind them. A shout echoed along the tunnel. One man fired, sparks flashed from the wall beside them where the bullets struck. She flinched. Billy almost pulled her off her feet as he dragged her around the curve.

Ahead the tunnel stretched into the distance, seeming an impossible length. All they could do was keep running as death approached from behind.

They had only gone a few metres when up ahead appeared two golf cart buggies with more armed men.

They stopped. Billy raised his weapon, fired at the buggies. The electric vehicles swerved. The men climbed out, taking cover behind them. Jennifer readied her pistol. Time to stand and fight.

Once they entered the mine system, they walked in silence. Each one lost in their own thoughts about the task ahead. They had trudged on for about half an hour, through dark tunnels pierced only by their helmet torches. In many places, they had to bend over to navigate the claustrophobic passages.

They entered a wider part of the tunnel which looked as if it may have been some kind of storage area. Morgan held up his hand. Cyclops and Kukri set down the metal box they had been carrying between them. This contained equipment to help affect entry to the complex. Trotsky was holding a type of Thermobaric lance, something created in the deep dark black labs of the United States. All efforts were performed in silence. Trotsky crossed over to the right side wall while Cyclops retrieved from the metal box a device which looked like a small TV connected to a camera with a wide angle lens. He set this up on a supporting tripod in front of the wall. He activated the device, the screen lit up, and after he had fiddled with a pair of knobs a black and white image appeared on the screen.

They could see a long section of straight corridor with an arched roof and featureless walls. There were no signs of life.

Morgan indicated the wall next to the image.

“Trot, cut away there then we can set the charges.”

Bane stood off to one side, feeling like a third wheel on a blind date. Hypo came over to stand next to him.

“Trotsky’s only happy if he’s blowing’ shit up or burning stuff. So, what’s so important about this bell device?”

Morgan watched the lance begin its work. The stone wall began to melt like heated butter. He came over to Bane, holding out his hand. Bane took the proffered hand and received a strong handshake.

“We have a few minutes, so, welcome to Omega once again, sorry it’s all a bit rushed here.”

“No problem, needs must when the devil drives as they say.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to say there is no need to prove anything to us here, you’ve done that already or the colonel would not have brought you on-board, go on then tells us what you make of this bell, do you think it is a time machine?”

Bane rubbed his chin, and thought on the information he had uncovered.

“Well, if the files are to be believed then yeah, it seems so, used at least once when it appeared in Kecksburgh.”

They noticed Hypo looking around.

“What’s wrong with you,” Morgan asked.

“I keep expecting Mulder and Scully to show up.”

Bane and Morgan laughed.

“There is no information on whatever the Germans did being replicated, and it seems Kammler and the scientists have been buried in the system. I could not find any information on what happened to them afterwards. The problem seems to be the fuel that drives the device. No one has been able to create the same mixture-the Xerum 525.”

“I have a feeling these looney tunes who have taken the complex may have done just that, question is, why do they need to go back?”

“Heads up! ” Cyclops called out, “We got movement.”

They all focussed in on the screen.

A man and a woman were running along the tunnel. They stopped. The man fired at something off screen. Cyclops swivelled the camera in the direction of his shots. Two buggies could be seen swerved across the tunnel with four armed men taking cover behind them.

“Trotsky, how you doing?”

“I’m through to the tunnel wall, boss man.”

“Okay, Kukri, Hypo, set the charges, some folk need a little help, when the wall goes we go out shooting.”

The two men took shaped charges from the metal box, and placed them in the still smoking hole Trotsky had made. They all moved back further down the tunnel.

“Fire in the hole! ” Kukri yelled as he hit the button on the detonator.

A fire storm of bullets punctuated the walls and floor of the tunnel all around Jennifer and Billy. The shots calculated to scare not kill.

Jennifer threw down her weapon, followed by Billy. Both realised it was futile to continue.

“Get on your knees, and put your hands on your head! ” A heavily accented voice yelled from the direction of the buggies.

They both complied with the request.

Jennifer's heart was pounding. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for a bullet to the head any moment. Billy stared straight ahead, watching the weapons up approach of the four men. He looked over his shoulder to see three more approaching from his rear, their weapons trained on them as they advanced.

“Keep looking at me dummkopf!” One of the four shouted, they halted about two metres away from Jennifer and Billy.

For a few seconds, nobody moved.

Silence reigned.

The silence was broken by what sounded like the gods cracking boulders with their fists. The wall to the left of the four men exploded out-wards. They disappeared in a cloud of rubble, smoke, and fire.

Jennifer screamed. Billy stared open mouthed. Six men in combat greens, emerged from the newly formed hole. They opened fire on the men behind Billy and Jennifer. One man swivelled towards the sound of a scream in the newly formed rubble heap. He fired one single shot which silenced the screamer..

Two men hurried up the corridor to take up covering positions near the buggies, two more sped past them to take up covering positions to the rear.

The remaining two walked towards them.

Billy jumped to his feet. He grabbed the nearest mans hand and pumped it furiously.

“I don’t know who you are but thank God you arrived in time.”

“Name’s Morgan, and you two are?”

“I’m Billy Lee. This here’s Doctor Jennifer Connelly, we work here.”

“Nice to meet you folks, right what can you tell me about the situation down here, where are the bad guys located? How are they armed? And anything else you may think is important.”

“Sorry, sir, we can’t tell you much,” Billy said, “We’ve spent the last couple of hours running for our lives, they do seem to have guards on all floors, armed with machine guns and pistols. They seem to be German, I think they’re after something in the vault, I disabled the locking mechanism on the way down here, they’ll need to cut through the door now.”

Morgan nodded as Billy spoke. He now had a problem though, they could not afford to carry extra baggage along, but on the other hand he could not allow them to go to the hub on their own or become one man down to babysit them.

Jennifer seemed to sense what he was thinking.

“You’ve got to take us along with you, we can both use these guns, and there are only six of you.”

Morgan was looking at the doctor, surprised at how gutsy she appeared to be. She did have a point, he thought they must be resourceful to have made it this far.

“Alright, but you do exactly as myself or any of my men tell you, no exceptions, agreed?”

They both nodded, “Agreed.”

Morgan called Trotsky and Kukri back from their position by the electric carts.

“Trot, you know the layout to the vault better than any of us, you take point, first order of the day is to secure that location. Let’s move out, double time people.”

Koenig gazed into the open metal attache case on Fairfax’s desk before him. Inside sat four glass vials filled with a rust red liquid. Looking up at Hoffman, he smiled his wolfs smile and said, “A supreme effort, Oberst Hoffman, despite the might of the US armies surrounding us you got through. You will be hailed a hero in the new Fatherland.”

Hoffman clicked his heels and inclined his head at Koenig.

“It was easy in the end, Mein Fuhrer, you were right that cover would be sparse near the radioactive lands, with the help of the secreted protective suit I was able to make it through safe. Is all ready with Die Glocke?”

“We have had a minor setback, someone sabotaged the locking mechanism to the vault door but I have men currently working on it as we speak, we should be through in the hour.”

There was a knock at the door. Gunther entered and saluted.

“What is it, Gunther?”

“We have lost touch with the team sent down to relieve the Emergency Exit guards, Mein Fuhrer, nor can we raise them on their radios either.”

“Take a team down and investigate, leave your brother outside my door.”

Gunther saluted and left the room.

“Problems? ” Hoffman asked.

“No, they are probably in a radio blind-spot, come let us go check out the advance team, see if they are ready then we shall go down to the vault.”

Bane loped along behind Morgan and Trotsky. He was soon realising he was not as fit as he thought he was. He felt the beginnings of a stitch in his side, and so was glad when Trotsky held up his hand for them to stop.

The corridor had opened up into what looked like some kind of warehouse. Rows and rows of high rise pallet racking stretched away on either side of where they now gathered. All were filled from floor to ceiling, which towered high above them, with wooden crates of varying size and shape.

“What is this place, Billy? ” Morgan asked.

“Not sure, I’ve never been this deep before.”

“Trotsky, any ideas?”

The little Israely took out his