Dominatus (34 page)

The message came through the two-way communicators Mac and those posted at the blast door entrance were carrying.  Keith too had one in the defense room.  I was with Keith when the message began.  Apparently Hess, or someone among his operatives, had located the frequency being used and were then able to communicate to Mac and his men directly.

“Hello, my little Dominatus scumbags!  We’ve been listening to your communications for some time now…hope you don’t mind.  On behalf of the New United Nations let me simply say that my name is Special Operations COMMANDER, August Hess.  I am from the government – and I’m here to help.

“Are you there Mr. Walker?  I believe you are.  What I would like you to do is to locate us just across the valley from you…we’re about fifteen hundred yards away.  You should see a group of twelve all bound together…a bit worse for wear I might add.  Your former friends…perhaps family…those who chose to remain in their cabins or attempted to sneak out of Dominatus as the drones were arriving.

“You enjoying our drones by the way?

“Anyways, these twelve are what’s left of Dominatus outside that cave of yours.  The rest were blown up.  Nothing left of them but…the memories.  And soon, we’ll be removing them as well.

“But first, Mr. Walker, you and me have some unfinished business.  Now, I’m going to be making my way up to that cave of yours with these twelve people as collateral.  They’ll be staying down here.  Anything happens to me or my men, and they die.  Do you understand?  And they won’t die quickly…no…I like to make certain people truly appreciate the crimes they have committed against the government.  And you all have been very, very naughty for a very, very long time.

“Mr. Walker?  Hello Mr. Walker?  Please respond or I will have to assume you’re simply being rude…and one of these poor souls down here will be paying the price for that rudeness.”

There was the sound of a brief scuffle, followed by further directions from August Hess.

“Tell them who you are, sir. Tell them who you are or I kill the woman next to you.”

“Mac!  This is Bill.  Bill Crup.”

I recalled meeting Bill outside the operations center shortly after arriving to Dominatus.  He and Bear were both standing outside the entrance.

“I’m ok Mac.  We’re all ok.  No need to----“

Bill Crup went silent as the unmistakable impact of a hard object hitting flesh was heard.

August Hess continued.

“That was your friend Mr. Crup – I believe he used to be an accountant.  Quite an eclectic group you all are up here Mr. Walker.  Such an interesting variety!  It really makes my job so much more…fulfilling.  And I do love my job.”

A child was now crying in the background.

“Yes, we have a child here too.  A little girl.  Why, she looks to be no more than five…maybe six years old Mr. Walker.  And she’s a bit scared right now.  Seeing Mr. Crup getting hit in the face like that…a child shouldn’t have to see such things!  Isn’t that right Mr. Walker?  Why would you want a poor, defenseless little child to have to see something like that?  Shame on you.  Shame on all of you.

“Bring that child over here…yes…bring her here.”

Keith let out an enraged hiss.

“Motherfucker…”

Keith was frantically attempting to use the M2 sight scope to pull up an image of Hess and the group of captured Dominatus residents.  A few seconds later, the screen had the visual in surprising clarity.

Just as August Hess had described, twelve people were tied together, surrounded by at least twenty New United Nations officers.  The tall form of Officer Hess could be seen speaking into the communicator as a young child was being pulled from her mother and dragged to him. 

Keith pointed to the screen.

“That’s little Stephanie…Loren’s daughter.  Loren Simms.  You might have seen Loren at Mac’s place, the night everyone was singing and dancing.”

I could hear the mother of the girl screaming no as she was brought in front of Hess, who placed his right hand atop her head.

“I know you can hear me, Mr. Walker.  Can you see me too?  I think you can.  I think you’re watching this right now.”

The door to the defense room opened and both Mac and Bear walked through, their eyes already searching the monitor for the visual of what was happening outside.  Bear’s eyes visibly communicated his rage while Mac on the other hand, appeared incredibly composed, almost relaxed.

August Hess continued speaking.

“You want to watch me kill this child, Mr. Walker?  Is that how cowardly you are?  To try and save yourself you would watch this innocent little thing die?  Hear her screams?  Come now, Mr. Walker, what will all those people of yours think of you then?”

Mac slowly raised the communicator to his mouth.

“I’m here, Officer Hess.  Please release the girl.  Her name is Stephanie.  Her mother’s name is Loren, and they have done nothing to deserve this treatment.  You have no authority to kill innocents Officer Hess – you are violating your own government’s mandates.”

Hess returned Mac’s comments with laughter.

“Am I now?  Oh, Mr. Walker, you really can’t be that much of a fool!  I AM the government!  That means all of those mandates…they aren’t for ME.  They are for pathetic creatures like YOU, Mr. Walker.  You and all those with you and the twelve I have tied up here in front of me right now.  I’m here to bury you, Mr. Walker.  All of you, and nobody will ever speak of this place again.  Don’t attempt to tell me I am in the wrong here.  I am a Special Operations Officer of the New United Nations.  I decide right and wrong.  Not you, Mr. Walker.  Not you…”

August Hess gripped the top of the young girl’s head and jerked it back, causing her to cry out loudly and her mother to again scream no.

“I tell you what, Mr. Walker, I am going to let you decide who dies right now, at this very moment.  Will it be the young girl…or the mother?  You see yourself as the protector of these people, these animals?  So choose, Mr. Walker.  Who lives?  Who dies?  And make it quick now, or I will simply kill them both.”

The screams of Loren Simms repeated the demand that August Hess kill her and not her daughter Stephanie.

“Tell that to Mr. Walker, Ms. Simms…not my decision.  Tell that to him – not me!”

Again Hess snapped back the head of Loren Simms’ child.

“Mac!  Mac!  Kill me!  Kill me Mac!  Please!  Don’t let him hurt my baby!  Mac!  Kill me!”

Bear, Keith, and I were all staring at Mac, who in turn glared at the image on the monitor.  Finally he again spoke into the communicator.

“Leave the child alone, Officer Hess.  Leave everyone alone and come up here.  You want another shot at me tough guy?  Come on up – you, your men, whatever.  Just leave those people be.”

More laughter.  Though the image was not so clear as to be able to see his smile, I imagined the wolf-like grin of Alexander Hess as he gave his reply to Mac.

“Out of time, Mr. Walker, I’ll kill them both.  I’ll kill them all.  I gave you a chance to save them, only one need die right now, but you don’t seem to have the courage to make one simple little decision!”

Officer Hess gripped Stephanie Simms’ head in both of his hands, clearly preparing to snap her neck.  The hysterical screams of Stephanie’s mother Loren grew louder still.

“Kill me!  Me!  Mac!  Kill me!”

“Hess!  Hess!  Don’t kill the girl!”

We watched as August Hess hesitated on the screen.

“Who then do I kill, Mr. Walker?  Say it.  Tell me who I am to kill.”

Mac took a deep, measured breath…his eyes returning again to cold indifference.

“Kill the mother.  Don’t harm the girl.”

Officer Hess released Stephanie Simms’ head from his grip and motioned for her mother to be brought forward.

“Oh my, Mr. Walker, I had read your file.  It detailed your past, indicated you were quite the killer in your day.  Having met you in person, I assumed the file had you all wrong.  But here you are, back to your killing ways.  And poor Ms. Simms here…to be cut down in the prime of life – and by YOUR orders.  How does that make you feel, Mr. Walker?  Like your old self?”

Now it was Stephanie screaming for the life of her mother, who in turn was trying to calm her daughter and tell her it was going to be all right.

“Now look what you’ve done Mr. Walker.  You and your Old Man…this place was nothing more than a lie.  A dangerous lie you sold to these people.  Did you really think you would be allowed to ignore the mandates?  Ignore the government?  Ignore ME, Mr. Walker?  Shame on you.  Such arrogance.  Such…stupidity.  And now…at what cost, Mr. Walker?  This poor child will now be witness to the death of her mother.  You did this, Mr. Walker.  You are responsible.”

August Hess turned Loren Simms around so she was facing the other eleven captured residents of Dominatus – including her daughter, whose screams had grown silent as she watched her mother look calmly down at her.

Hess stood directly behind Loren Simms and whispered into her left ear, keeping the transmitter close enough so we too could hear his words.

“This will hurt.  You will scream.  And your daughter’s last image of you will be the life draining from your body. Now don’t move, or my hand may slip all the way over to where your little girl now stands.  Do you understand, Ms. Simms?”

We could just make out the image of Loren’s head nodding.

Officer Hess brought his right hand slowly up to Loren Simms’ right ear. Mac pointed to an object held in Hess’s hand – his calm was finally broken.

“My god, he’s got an ice pick.”

August Hess jammed the pick into the right ear of Loren Simms, stopping a third of the way as Loren’s screams reverberated throughout the valley below the cave.

Mac’s gaze was unflinching, taking in every moment of Loren Simms’ death.  Bear though turned away, his fists clenched tight.  Keith too was unable to watch, his face pale and his hands shaking.

Hess held tightly to Loren’s flailing body, proceeding to slowly push the ice pick further into her skull.  After several minutes her screaming stopped, though her body continued to flail uncontrollably.  Hess released his grip and watched as Loren fell to the ground in her death throes in front of her daughter who remained silent – likely in shock.

August Hess spoke again to Mac.

“Ok then, Mr. Walker, with that bit of business now behind us, will you still honor your invitation to allow me to meet you in that cave of yours? To…settle a score between us?”

Mac’s response was but one word whispered between clenched teeth back to Officer Hess.

“Yes.”

Mac turned away from the monitor and closed his eyes, taking another deep breath.

“Today – that monster dies today.”

XXVI.

Everyone in the cave except for the Old Man, Dublin, and Dr. Miller, gathered in the main room awaiting the arrival of August Hess and his men.  Mac instructed everyone to make certain their side arms were loaded and ready for use and to appear as calm as possible but to be ready to defend themselves on his order if need be.

“I want all of you standing on one side of the room so that if you need to fire away, you hit one of them and not one of our own.  And if it comes to that…you just keep firing as many rounds as you got on you.”

Mac put Keith behind the kitchen counter where, hidden from view, one of the Mossberg tactical shotguns from the defense room was placed inside a drawer.

He also demanded I arm myself as well.

“You’re gonna take this little Ruger, Reese.  It’s clipped and ready.  You got ten rounds here.  Been using this thing for target practice for many years…just point and shoot and don’t think twice about doing it.  We need everyone ready to fight today…everyone.”

I didn’t hesitate…feeling comfort as my hand enclosed around the hard plastic grip before placing it into the right pocket of my jacket.

Nearly twenty minutes passed before the voice of Officer Hess was heard from Mac’s communicator.

“We have arrived just outside your front door, Mr. Walker.  It appears the drones had this place just about cracked wide open for us.  That said…would you be so kind as to open the door a bit further so we can walk on in?  Or would you rather have me huff and puff and blow this whole house of yours down? Oh…and Mr. Walker…no-one is to be armed inside there. Anyone who shows even a hint of a weapon against us, causes the deaths of your friends we are holding in the valley – including that adorable little child.”

All eyes turned to Mac, wondering what they were to do with their weapons.

“Put your guns, shit…put them into the corner over there.  All of them.”

Bear gave make a look indicating his uncertainty.

“Mac…you sure about this?  You just had us arm up…now we’re giving up our weapons?”

“Yes Bear, I want to keep our people down there alive for as long as possible.  I assure you, when I get my shot, when the moment is right…I’ll be taking it.”

After each of us dropped our weapons into the front right corner of the room, Mac signaled to Bear to initiate the opening of the blast door.  Bear disappeared down the passage toward the door as his wife and children looked on fearfully from the back of the main room.