The Silver Strand Legacy Read online

  THE

  SILVER

  STRAND

  LEGACY

  ERITIS BOOK I

  T.E. STOUYER

  Copyright © 2018 T.E. STOUYER

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, businesses, events, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  ISBN 978-1-9999649-1-7

  Second edition June 2018

  Chapter 1 – The Storm

  The night sky was grim. Dark clouds melted into a pouring rain that battered the ground relentlessly. Trees were shaking, as if frightened by the fierce gale racing through the forest. At times, flashes of light slithered through the thick veil of darkness, each one a prelude to the ferocious roar of thunder.

  In the distance, streams of electricity connected the skyline to the horizon, linking the heavens and the earth. A reminder, or perhaps a warning, that all of nature’s parts are interconnected, and that any significant change in one will inevitably affect the others.

  Deep inside the forest, a vast compound stood in defiance of this tumultuous portrait, an oasis of calm in the storm. At its center was a modern glass-and-steel building flanked by two squat concrete structures. The compound was surrounded by a tall metallic fence, and signs posted at regular intervals warned of the terrible fate awaiting all would-be trespassers.

  From the outside, the facility appeared abandoned. There were no lights filtering through the black-tinted windows, no sounds arising to challenge the rumblings of the storm, and no movements which could not be attributed to the strong winds.

  Then, all of a sudden, on the tail end of a deafening thunderclap, the compound sprung to life. An alarm siren resounded throughout the forest, and powerful projectors flooded the entire property with light, revealing a hangar farther back near the fence, and a military helicopter parked in front of it.

  Answering the call of the siren, a large contingent of soldiers swarmed out of the two smaller structures. The men proceeded to surround the main building, splitting up into small groups positioned at equal distance from one another. The maneuver was accomplished with remarkable efficiency, and with almost no communication between them. It was clearly a well-rehearsed exercise.

  Meanwhile, inside the main building, the scene unfolding in the second-floor control room presented a stark contrast to the organized deployment taking place in the courtyard.

  The control room looked like it belonged on the set of a science-fiction movie. It was a large circular booth fitted with a variety of sophisticated equipment. The lone piece of furniture was a semicircular panel placed at its center, opposite a large bank of monitors.

  Seated at the panel, a man was frantically typing on a keyboard while his colleague bounced around the room to check on the various instruments.

  The alarm signal inside the control room consisted only of a blinking red light. And since very little of the buzzing from the siren outside filtered through the walls, the two men could communicate without having to raise their voices.

  “What happened, Paul?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” said the man sitting at the console. “Hmm …”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know how, but the audio and video feeds have been shut off in some areas. Even the motion sensors are down.” He paused for a moment. “It’s like there’s no power anymore.”

  “No power? What about the backup generators? They should have taken over.”

  “I know, George, I know, but for some reason they haven’t.” Paul pointed to his right. “Try pulling up the grids.”

  George rushed to an instrument panel on the wall and pulled up an electronic blueprint of the facility overlapped on a grid map. “Yeah, I can confirm it. We’ve got some power outages.”

  “Where?” Paul asked.

  “Grids sixteen to twenty have gone dark. There’s partial visibility in grids thirteen to fifteen. Everything else remains unaffected.”

  The technicians were baffled. The facility’s power source was cut off from the outside world and was comprised of a triple redundancy system designed specifically to prevent this sort of incident.

  “Let’s run a full diagnostic of the power systems,” George suggested.

  His colleague ran the command on his computer.

  “You’re not going to believe it,” Paul said when the result came up on his screen. “The systems didn’t lose power. They were overloaded.”

  “What? Are you sure about this?” George asked, sounding skeptical. “That can’t be right. Check again.”

  “I’m telling you, the generators are fried!”

  “How could this happen?”

  “No idea.”

  “Could it be an accident?”

  “Not a chance. Each system is independent from the others. For this to be even remotely possible, someone would have to find a way to link—” Paul stopped short.

  “What’s the matter?” George asked.

  “The grids …”

  “What about the grids?”

  Paul didn’t answer, and instead kept staring at the grid display with growing apprehension.

  “Look, if you know something, tell me,” George pressed. But then it hit him. “Wait a minute … grids sixteen to twenty. Those are the sublevels.”

  “It’s them,” Paul said in a trembling voice.

  George stared at the grid. His pulse had already been running high since the alarm had sounded off, but it spiked at the mere thought of what Paul had suggested. His heart was now beating so fast he felt like it might jump out of his chest. He rushed back to the main console. “Quick, we need to reroute power from the control room systems. Maybe we can reactivate the electronic locking mechanisms in the affected areas.”

  George took a seat next to his colleague and wasted no time implementing his plan. If their fears turned out to be justified, they would have very little time to act. Paul understood this as well; he too now feverishly applied himself to the task. For the following minute, the only sound inside the room was that of the fast clicking of fingers flying over their keyboards, until a gruff voice appeared out of nowhere to interrupt the string of clicks. “What’s the status?”

  Startled, the two technicians swiveled around in their chairs and saw a man standing in the doorway, half-covered by the shadows. They had been so absorbed in their task they hadn’t heard the code being keyed in, or the door slide open. They hadn’t even noticed that the alarm and the footsteps in the outside corridor had become clearly audible. They sat motionless, their eyes fixed on the intruder as he emerged from the shadows.

  “Oh, it’s you, Mr. Jenkins!” said George breathing a sigh of relief. “You gave us quite a scare.”

  “The status!” the man repeated in a dry tone.

  “Ah, yes … of course …”

  George had always felt a bit uncomfortable around Jenkins. It wasn’t because Jenkins never smiled or because his steely dark eyes never seemed to stop glowering. It was something else, something about his general demeanor that George found strangely unsettling.

  “Let’s see,” the technician continued, “we’ve lost all power on the lower levels. There is partial functionality on the ground floor and on sublevel one. Everything else checks out fine.”

  Jenkins took a moment to process the inf
ormation. Then, he pulled out a small walkie-talkie from the pocket of his black jacket and spoke into it. “I’m ordering a total lockdown effective immediately. No one gets in or out.”

  “Understood, sir,” a voice crackled on the other end.

  Jenkins put the walkie-talkie back inside his pocket and turned to George. “Continue.”

  “We think something overloaded the circuits. When you arrived, we were about to attempt a bypass to restore partial power to the affected areas.”

  “Won’t that compromise the control room?” Jenkins asked.

  “No, our systems are isolated from the rest of the compound, including our power source. There is no foreseeable risk. The only problem is we won’t be able to restore power to all the lower levels, but we should be able to—”

  “Never mind that,” Jenkins interrupted. “Just concentrate on getting the ground floor operational, and on reactivating the security measures.”

  George looked unsure. “But … members of our staff are still trapped down there. If we don’t—”

  “You have your orders!” said Jenkins.

  George shot a frustrated look at his colleague.

  Paul glanced back at him as if to say, We’d better do as he says.

  George sighed. He had spent enough time around Jenkins to know it was pointless to try to sway him. As the technician sat back in his chair, he recalled the first time he had been brought to the facility. Jenkins had been introduced to him as the person in charge of all security matters and the one who had the final say during emergencies. The current situation definitely qualified as an emergency. The only way to override Jenkins was to contact his superiors on the outside. And that could take a while.

  Those military types are all the same, George thought. They’re so narrow-minded, it’s damned near impossible to get them to see things from a different perspective. Of course, the fact they’re a paranoid bunch doesn’t help matters either.

  “Keep me updated on your progress,” said Jenkins as he headed for the door. “And kill the alarm.”

  Jenkins stepped out into the hallway, where a group of soldiers was waiting for him. He called them to attention. “Lieutenant, tell all units to hold their positions. No one is to come inside the main building. We’ll wait until power is restored. I’ve called for additional personnel. When they arrive, we’ll secure each floor one by one. For now, the order is to maintain a perimeter and contain the prisoners, nothing more.”

  “Sir, what if one of them gets out?” the lieutenant asked.

  “Shoot on sight.”

  The lieutenant was surprised by his commander’s reply. None of the soldiers had ever laid eyes on the prisoners—they didn’t have the necessary clearance. Others were responsible for security inside the main building—guards from a private group that reported directly to Jenkins. Once in a while, the soldiers would see batches of those men arrive and leave in unmarked vehicles, but they had no real contact with them. The only sure piece of information the soldiers had regarding the prisoners was their number: eight.

  The lieutenant had always wondered why it was necessary to mobilize so large a force on a simple watch duty for a mere eight prisoners. Most soldiers assumed it was because they were protecting some top-secret spies or informants, but that was pure speculation on their part. One of the soldiers’ favorite pastimes when inside their barracks was to try to guess the identities of the people kept in the lower levels of the main building. Whoever they were, the number of resources devoted to their incarceration and protection suggested they were of great value, which was why the order to “shoot on sight” came as a surprise to the lieutenant. Not a single intruder had been spotted, not a single shot had been fired, and the men had been quick to deploy to their assigned positions around the compound. The situation appeared to be well under control.

  “You don’t want us to apprehend them?” the lieutenant ventured.

  “Absolutely not!” Jenkins barked. “Make sure everyone is clear on this. We only need to keep them in.”

  “Understood, sir. But how are we supposed to recognize the prisoners?”

  “Don’t bother with details. If you see someone you don’t know, shoot them.”

  The soldiers exchanged uneasy glances.

  “Erm … what if it’s one of the scientists?” the lieutenant risked. “Or a member of the private security team? We’re not too familiar with those guys either.”

  “I don’t care! Now, return to—” Jenkins stopped and pricked up his ears.

  With the alarm turned off, the hallways had become much quieter. And now, a faint but distinctive sound was making its way to them.

  They all stilled and focused as they tried to identify its source.

  “It sounds like an engine,” someone hazarded.

  A transmission came in on Jenkins’ walkie-talkie.

  “Mr. Jenkins! Come in, sir.”

  He answered right away. “What is it?”

  “Sir, a helicopter has been spotted leaving the compound at high speed.”

  “Shoot it down!” Jenkins shouted.

  “We tried,” the voice replied, “but it was already out of range.”

  “How could they get up there so fast?” Jenkins muttered to himself as he hurried back into the control room.

  Paul and George were still sitting at the main console, working on the power issue.

  Jenkins ran over to them. “Track the transponder on the prototype helicopter.”

  The technicians looked up in surprise.

  “The prototype?” George said. “It’s all the way up on the roof.”

  “Yeah,” Paul added. “Besides, it can’t fly yet.”

  “Do it now!” Jenkins growled.

  With a few keystrokes, Paul conjured up a radar image on a monitor. The image showed a detailed map of the area, and on it was a red dot moving away from their position.

  “What the hell!” Paul exclaimed. “It’s moving. It’s moving fast.”

  George was bemused. “Impossible. It’s not supposed to be ready.”

  “They stole it,” Paul whispered.

  “How long before it’s out of radar range?” Jenkins asked.

  “At its current speed, about … ten minutes, give or take,” Paul replied.

  “Why didn’t they remove the transponder?” Jenkins wondered aloud.

  “The transponder is buried deep inside the circuitry,” said George. “It was designed that way on purpose to make it difficult for anyone to tamper with it.”

  “He’s right,” Paul concurred. “It would take a long time to remove it without damaging the adjacent components.”

  George scratched his head. “I still don’t understand how they could have taken it.”

  Jenkins wasn’t the type to make rash decisions, but time was now of crucial importance. A decision had to be made based on the available information. And although he didn’t like the idea of leaving the compound in the middle of a lockdown, he believed the situation here was stable enough. The lockdown had been implemented in a timely manner. All his men needed to do was stay put until reinforcements arrived. Right now, the highest priority was to make sure the prototype helicopter didn’t get away.

  “Call the hangar,” Jenkins told Paul as he hurried to the door. He signaled two soldiers to come inside. “You two are to remain here and keep this room secured.”

  “I have the hangar on the line,” said Paul.

  Jenkins returned to the console. “Put it on speaker.”

  “Brett here,” a voice said.

  “Get the chopper ready,” Jenkins ordered over the com line. “We’re going after the prototype.” Without waiting for an acknowledgment, he ended the communication and turned to George. “Stay here, and don’t open the door for anyone. There’s no telling who might still be out there.”

  “The prototype is a combat-type model,” George remarked. “It’s big enough to carry eight people.”

  “That doesn’t mean they’re all on board,” J
enkins countered. “These two soldiers will remain here with you,” he added, nodding at the sentinels by the door. “In the meantime, follow my previous instructions. Restore power to the ground floor and lock everything down.”

  “Very well,” said George without trying to hide his frustration. He kept his eyes on Jenkins as he walked away and noticed him whispering something to the soldiers before leaving the room.

  George wasn’t happy about abandoning the people in the lower levels. It was one thing to leave the guards down there to maybe have to deal with the remaining prisoners—that was part of their job—but the scientists …

  Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could do. He had no doubt Jenkins had posted the two sentries inside the control room for security reasons. But he suspected it was also to keep an eye on him and Paul, to make sure they followed orders.

  George shot a quick glance at the soldiers. They both had the same stern, uncompromising look on their faces. No point in trying to appeal to their sense of decency. “Well, you heard him,” he said, turning to his co-worker. “Let’s get to work.”

  Paul winked at him. “Sure thing.”

  The message from George’s tone had been clear. They wouldn’t abandon their trapped colleagues. They would try to find a way to help them without the guards noticing.

  Chapter 2 – Explosion

  Jenkins arrived at the hangar accompanied by six soldiers. As requested, the helicopter was getting ready for take-off. Moving against the wind blasts from the propeller blades, Jenkins and his men hunched as they boarded the aircraft. The two pilots were already running their final checks.

  Jenkins put on his helmet and activated his microphone.

  “Are you sure about this Mr. Jenkins?” the lead pilot asked. “It’s dangerous to fly in this weather.”

  “I don’t care if it’s raining grenades, Brett. We’re going after them.”

  Moments later, the helicopter lifted off the ground.