Paradise Hacked (First Circle Club Book 2) (17 page)

Vehicles filled the driveway from the street all the way to the garage in back. The cars appeared ordinary from a distance, although close inspection would reveal odd features such as automatic tire inflation systems and armored body panels. The neighbors believed a movie production company was using the house as a set.

Knox knocked on the front door using a special knock pattern. The door cracked open, and a soldier peeked out.

"Good morning, sir," the soldier said. "It's an odd time for you to be coming to work."

"Odd things are happening in Chinatown," Knox said.

"May I see your badge, please?"

The colonel slipped his badge out of his pocket and held it up for inspection. The soldier opened the door a little wider and used a portable laser scanner to check the authenticity of the badge. He also leaned in and stared at Knox's face for half a minute to make sure he wasn't an imposter.

"You may enter, sir," the soldier finally said.

Knox walked into the quiet house. He went straight upstairs to the security and surveillance control room. Only one operator was on duty, but that was forgivable considering dawn was still a couple of hours away.

"What's the status?" Knox demanded.

The operator was an older man with the rank of lieutenant. He was probably near retirement.

"The units in Chinatown are still searching the river for the male subjects, sir."

"Huh?" Knox said. "I missed that news."

The operator summarized the situation.

Knox sighed with irritation. He hated complications, and missing aliens was a very big complication.

"What about the female subjects?"

"A squad is following them using the homing beacon, sir," the operator said. "They are passing through Franklin Park."

"Our guys are staying out of sight?"

"A following distance of one kilometer. The range of the beacon is three kilometers."

Knox nodded. "Perfect. I'll be downstairs in my office. Keep me apprised of any new developments."

"Yes, sir."

Knox went down to his office and turned on the light. He didn't have much actual work to do, but he could fill out paperwork to pass the time. He certainly couldn't afford to go back to sleep even though he was exhausted.

He noticed an unexpected light in the back of the house. He walked around and found the lights in the basement were on. He went downstairs.

Dr. Harlow was working in his physics lab. A device built out of copper coils, batteries, and capacitors was on his workbench. He was soldering the connections under a bright lamp.

"What are you doing?" Knox said.

Harlow looked up abruptly, and his face flashed guilt. Then he settled down.

"Just puttering around, sir," he said. "I couldn't sleep."

"Is that some kind of experiment?"

Harlow looked at the device on the workbench. "Something I played with years ago but never quite got working right. I decided to take another shot at it. What's happening with the aliens?"

"Things have gone a little crooked." Knox related the latest news.

Harlow put the soldering iron on its stand. "We have to catch them."

"The operatives are doing their best."

"Maybe those aliens are the reason the experiments have been failing," Harlow said with a surprising amount of anxiety in his voice. "They certainly know what the problem is. It will be a disaster if they get away."

"Calm down," Knox said. "The best people available are dealing with it."

Harlow frowned and looked at his experiment. "If the President finds out you're chasing real, live aliens, he'll take the project away from us. He'll give it to a high-ranking general."

"I know," Knox said. "I'm doing my best to keep that information secret, at least until after we capture them. Then we'll look like heroes."

Harlow shuffled his feet anxiously.

"You're still planning to meet Ms. Penn in the morning? What are you going to say to her?"

"I'll tell her what I told her before," Harlow said. "Science is hard. Discoveries come at a price. Maybe she'll listen this time."

Knox stared at the scientist. Harlow was acting odd. He was up to something.

"Sir," Harlow said, "I'd like to get back to my little project now."

Knox frowned. "Sure. I'll be upstairs if you want to talk more."

He left the basement, glancing over his shoulder at Harlow on the way out.

* * *

Harlow let out a sigh of relief.

He turned his attention back to the device on his workbench. Early in his career, he had researched weapons that used electromagnetic pulses. He had never managed to turn the technology into something which the Army could use on the battlefield, but it wasn't useless. He had learned how to build a small, electromagnetic bomb. When detonated, it would fry all the electronics in a light airplane and bring it crashing to the ground.

Rena Penn would not talk to the President because she would be dead.

As Harlow worked, he thought about the "aliens." He knew they weren't aliens at all. They were the adversaries the mysterious face had warned him about. It was imperative that Knox capture or kill them.

Harlow forced himself to relax. The Army's best soldiers were working on the problem.

Chapter Ten

Virgil slid out of the river and into the grass like a snake. He stayed low, bending his joints in ways impossible for a normal man. A soldier was standing on the riverbank, but he wasn't looking in the right direction. Virgil was on him in seconds.

"Hey," Virgil said.

The soldier turned and his eyes widened. He whipped his rifle around. Virgil grabbed the barrel and pushed it away just as the soldier pulled the trigger. The sound of a gunshot echoed off the buildings, but the bullet missed. Virgil punched the soldier in the jaw, knocking him out.

The noise would attract the other soldiers just as Virgil had intended. He dived back into the river and went straight to the bottom. He couldn't see anything in the chilly darkness, but the wall of the river channel guided him. He swam as fast as he could downstream while running his fingertips along the wall.

The fires of Hell kept him warm and supplied his body with energy. It was like having a small furnace in his gut. He wondered if those flames would ever go out.

A few minutes later, Virgil bumped into an obstacle. He felt it with his hands and discovered it was Alfred. Virgil had arrived at the right location.

They silently breached the surface together. They were near the four military vehicles parked on a dirt lot. The command vehicle was still there, and a man in a green uniform was sitting in the back seat. Virgil recognized the soldier as "Mr. Bravo" from Rooney's Coffee, but now he wore captain's bars. A driver was also in the car, but the rest of the soldiers had dispersed.

Virgil and Alfred had already agreed on a plan earlier. They climbed out of the river at the location where a truck blocked the view of the driver in the car.

Alfred drew a pistol and started shooting the tires of other vehicles. He was a lousy shot, but even an amateur couldn't miss at such short range. The gunshots sounded very loud in the still night.

Meanwhile, Virgil circled around behind the command vehicle using the truck as cover. The driver was getting out of the car. He was a huge man, at least six inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than Virgil. The driver also had full body armor.

Virgil ran, jumped, and kicked him in the back of the head. He went down like a sack of rocks.

Mr. Bravo was going out the other side of the command vehicle with the obvious intention of escaping.

"No, you don't," Virgil said.

He vaulted the hood of the car, grabbed the man, punched him in the gut, and shoved him roughly back inside. Virgil joined his captive on the back seat.

"Alfred!" Virgil yelled. "Time to go!"

Alfred nodded. He ran over and sat in the driver's seat. The keys were already in the ignition. He started the car, backed up, and drove off.

Virgil took a good look at his captive. The name on his Army uniform was "Kyle." He had the muscular, lean body of a man who worked out obsessively. His brown hair was cropped short and even. A scar under his left eye probably had an interesting story behind it.

Kyle drew a gun from his holster with surprising speed. He squeezed off a shot before Virgil had time to react, and a bullet punctured his abdomen. He grabbed the gun and ripped it out of Kyle's hand with brute strength. Kyle followed with an elbow to Virgil's jaw which hit with enough strength to make something crunch. Virgil shoved Kyle into the door with stunning force.

"Calm down," Alfred said in his special voice. "No need for violence. We're all friends here."

Kyle instantly relaxed.

"More mind-control," he said in a dopey voice.

"That's not true," Alfred said. "It's more accurate to say I'm sharing God's love and compassion...."

"Alfred!" Virgil said. "Shut up."

Alfred closed his mouth.

Virgil checked his gut. A hole had leaked some sticky, black fluid, but the wound was already closing. He would be good as new in a few minutes.

Kyle stared at the injury. "I heard you're an alien," he whispered.

"Is that what they told you?" Virgil said. "Sure. I'm from Mars. Take me to your leader. Bippity-bippity-bop!"

He twisted his neck and looked out the back window. The street was empty. The soldiers would have a hard time pursuing with flat tires.

"Where are we going now?" Alfred said.

Virgil faced the front. The car was headed north towards the skyscrapers in downtown Chicago.

He knew they couldn't just drive away and expect to escape. The military might have a surveillance plane tracking the car. They could hack traffic cameras or get the local police involved. The opposition had many good options for hunting down a couple of fugitives with a hostage.

Virgil looked at the dashboard and saw an array of radios and computers. He realized they might be transmitting the car's position in real-time. Stealing this particular vehicle had been a mistake, although Virgil was satisfied with the quality of his captive. Captain Kyle would have plenty of answers.

"The cursed hatch," Virgil said.

"Why there?" Alfred said.

"Once we're in the tunnels, the authorities will never find us. It's a maze down there, designed to keep people away from the hatch."

Alfred nodded. "Good idea, and it's not far."

Virgil faced Kyle. "And I don't want any more trouble from you. If you attack me again, you'll see how nasty this alien can get." Virgil raised his eyebrows.

* * *

"Colonel Knox!" a man yelled from upstairs. "Come quickly, sir!"

Knox jumped up from his desk and ran up the staircase. He went to the security control room.

"What's wrong?" he said.

"Captain Kyle was abducted!" the console operator replied breathlessly.

"Huh!?"

"It appears the male subjects came out of the water and captured him. They drove away in one of our cars."

A video shot by a drone was looping on a monitor. Knox watched the attack unfold. It had happened fast, less than thirty seconds between the time the subjects slipped out of the water and the time they drove away.

The man with brown hair impressed Knox in particular. He moved with uncanny speed. He took out the driver with a single blow and then handled Captain Kyle just as easily. Both opponents were strong guys with exceptional combat skills.

"What assets do we have?" Knox said.

"The operatives can try to pursue on flat tires, sir," the operator said, "but that may not work well. The command vehicle is moving too fast for the drones to follow. The radios are still transmitting, so at least we know exactly where it is."

Knox had a sudden headache causing him to rub his temples. Half his men were many miles away tailing the female subjects, and the other half had flat tires.

He sighed. "We'll have to use the local police to slow them down. Make up a story about escaped murderers with a hostage. Give them a description of the vehicle and its location."

"But, sir," the console operator said, "won't that compromise the secrecy of our operation?"

"What choice do we have? We can't just let Captain Kyle be taken hostage!"

* * *

"You won't get away with this," Kyle said.

"Who is going to stop us?" Virgil said.

"The United States Army."

"We're going to have a long conversation about that as soon as we get settled. You're going to tell me everything."

"I won't tell you anything," Kyle said.

"We'll see."

The car was passing through the center of downtown. Skyscrapers on both sides of the road created the effect of being at the bottom of a canyon. At night, the buildings were dark towers stretching up into blackness.

The sound of a police siren startled Virgil. He looked back and saw approaching red and blue flashing lights.

"I'm not speeding," Alfred said defensively.

"That's not it," Virgil said. "The Army must have called the police in an attempt to slow us down. They're desperate."

"What should I do?"

"Go faster."

Alfred tightened his grip on the steering wheel and clenched his jaw.

"I gather you've never participated in a high-speed chase before," Virgil said.

"I've seen them in the movies."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Then pretend it's a movie and drive!"

Alfred drove faster, but so did the police car chasing them. Virgil was worried about getting trapped. The police could easily box them in with just a few roadblocks. Unfortunately, Virgil couldn't do much to help. He was stuck in the back seat guarding Captain Kyle.

It didn't take long for Virgil's fears to come to fruition. Two police cars were parked across the road directly ahead.

"What do I do?" Alfred said.

"Use the sidewalk," Virgil said.

"But there isn't enough room."

"Then it's a good thing you're in a heavy duty military vehicle capable of smashing through obstacles."

Alfred swallowed.

He drove straight towards the police cars. At the last second, he swerved onto the sidewalk and clipped the back end of one of the cars. The impact made a satisfying crunching noise. Then he accelerated onwards.