Shadow Warrior: Destiny of a Mutant (12 page)

“Yes, sir.”

“Please, continue,” Roosevelt said, still shaking his head in shock at the SS’s savagery.

“The asset believes that the SS was able to locate a cache of the alien’s weapons, learn how to use them, and are now using them against us and our allies.”

“Then we need to bomb the hell out of that place before they can figure out how to fly that damn spaceship and kill the rest of us!”

“Normally, I would agree with you. However, that place is so well-fortified it would be impossible to be assured of completely destroying it. Also, think of the boon it would be to the U.S. if we could retrieve the spacecraft and weapons from the Germans.”

Roosevelt looked up from his desk at Donovan at this statement.

“There is something else you need to know, too, Mr. President.”

“Good God. What else is there?”

“We believe that not only did the Germans capture the alien’s ship, but they also captured the aliens who were flying it…alive!”

Roosevelt looked incredulous. He hadn’t considered that the beings responsible for flying the spacecraft were still alive.

“The ramifications of this are…unimaginable. I see why you didn’t share this information with the rest of the group. We need to come up with a plan as to how to not only retrieve that spacecraft and weapons, but also how to rescue the aliens,” said the president.

Donovan nodded, and then said, “Mr. President, considering the way that place is fortified, conventional bombs would have little effect on it. I believe that we may also have to consider deploying the Manhattan Project to take care of this in case we are unsuccessful in retrieving the spacecraft, weapons, and the aliens in a more conventional way.”

The Manhattan Project was the codename for the development of the atomic bomb that was being spearheaded by J. Robert Oppenheimer at a secret facility housed beneath the University of Chicago in Illinois.

“We both know that Oppenheimer and his crew are still months, if not years, away from finishing that project,” Roosevelt reminded Donovan.

“Well, perhaps you need to speed them up a bit. We cannot allow the Germans to mass produce those alien weapons, or to continue using the ones they found on the spacecraft. It’s too dangerous.”

The president nodded his head. He then placed his head in his hands thinking about how to proceed. The president then remembered the commlink device in his wall safe. If there was ever a time to see if it worked, this was it.

“Look, Bill, I have a lot of thinking to do about this. Let’s meet in a couple of days and try to come up with a game plan.”

“Good idea. Let’s sleep on it. I know it’s a lot to take in, but we need to move on this as soon as we can.” Donovan stood up and put the photographs back in the envelope and started to put them back in his briefcase when Roosevelt stopped him.

“Leave them for now. I may want to look at them some more. When I’m done, I’ll secure them in my safe.”

“Very well, Frank. I‘ll have my people reach out and task the asset to obtain more information immediately.”

“Excellent.”

“Good night. I’ll see myself out.”

The president nodded as Donovan got up and walked out of the conference room. The president then reopened the envelope and looked at the photographs again. He still could not believe his eyes.

Dear God, an actual alien spacecraft! Well, I guess this answers the question as to whether or not we’re alone in the universe,
he thought as he shook his head and sighed.

Roosevelt then called for one of the Secret Service agents outside of the Oval Office and gave him instructions that he was not to be disturbed and that they could take the rest of the night off. They reluctantly left him alone. After the agent left, Roosevelt wheeled his chair over and locked the door to his office. Roosevelt then used his crutches to help him stand, and went to the hidden wall safe where he retrieved the mysterious commlink device. He put it on his desk and looked at it for a few seconds. He was hesitant to use it, and part of him did not believe it would actually work. But, curiosity got the best of him, and he activated the device by placing his hand over the blank surface for a few seconds.

As he held his hand there, he was surprised to see that a group of unknown symbols had appeared on the smooth white surface of the device where none had been just seconds before. The president began pushing the sequence of symbols in their appropriate order, as he had been shown by his predecessor, President Hoover. Immediately it began to slowly hum, and then it glowed lightly for a few seconds, and then, just as suddenly as it sprang to life, it stopped completely and shut down. The symbols disappeared and the commlink device became blank once again.

The president waited for about ten minutes, and just as he started to activate it again, he was startled to see the air shimmering slightly in front of him. Immediately following the shimmer effect, a man appeared out of nowhere and was now seated in the chair directly in front of his desk. The man was powerfully built and was wearing a stylish dark suit, crisp white shirt, and maroon silk tie. He was clean shaven, with short, dark hair, ruggedly handsome, and appeared to be between 35 and 40 years old. Even though he had been told what to expect when he activated the device, the president was nonetheless startled to see that it was true.

“Good evening, Mr. President. I’m Colonel Clark. What can I do for you? I believe you called for me a few minutes ago. I’m sorry it took me so long to get here, but I was a little tied up on another matter.”

Chapter
25

Inside of Sagarmatha: The Workshop

1480 A.D.

In his wildest imagination Will could never have imagined the sights before him. The first chamber that Will entered was a futuristic workshop. In the center of the room was a waist-high, legless floating table, which Will cautiously approached. As he stepped within arm’s length of the table, an inscription appeared directly in front of him on a three dimensional, levitating screen. The inscription was written in the same unknown language.

After a few seconds, Will translated the inscription:
You have successfully completed and passed the first phase of your challenges. This is the second phase. Fail, and you will be removed immediately. You have ten Terran minutes in which to assemble the device in front of you and determine its purpose and function.

As soon as Will finished translating this, a disassembled conglomeration appeared out of nowhere on the table in front of him. To this point, Will had never seen any machinery more complicated than a block and tackle, a plow, or horse-drawn wagon. Numbers, in the same language, appeared in place of the inscription on the screen and began counting down backwards. Will went to work to try and make sense of what was in front of him. He studied the pieces of the device or machine in front of him for a full minute. The numerous pieces that lay in front of him started coming together in Will’s mind.

Will began manipulating the pieces, and, slowly, at first, it started coming together. The more of the device that Will put together, the faster he determined what pieces went where. After the device was more than halfway finished, Will paused for a couple of moments to look at what he was putting together. Even though he had no idea what it was, he
knew
what it was supposed to look like when it was finished. Will’s hands moved even faster.

Will had completed almost two-thirds of the unknown device, and looked at the timer, which indicated he had less than five minutes to complete the device‘s construction. Most of the internal parts were in their proper place. Another minute or so had passed as he put the finishing touches on the internal mechanisms. He then started completing the outer portion of the device, which took another two minutes of quick manipulation to finish. When the device was assembled, it consisted of three main parts. The top part was a control panel of some sort with a place on either side of it for a person’s hands. The middle part of it was the longest part, and it was shaped like a shaft that was approximately four feet tall, eight inches in diameter, and slightly angled. The bottom part appeared to be a sort of platform that was about thirty-six inches square and rounded on its edges. Will still had no idea what its function was.

He looked at the outer skin of the device, which was made of a flexible, but solid, metal that was whitish-silver in color. Will stood the device up and sat it so the bottom side of the platform was on the ground. Will then stood on the platform. He noticed that the control panel had a noticeable pattern of stars and diamond-shaped figures on its surface, along with more of the symbols from the unknown language that Will was able to decipher.

Will translated the symbols and pushed one of the diamond-shaped figures that was below it. The device hummed to life - glowing and pulsing silently. Will pushed a star-shaped figure, and the device glowed a different color. To his surprise, the device lifted off the ground and hovered in place about eight inches. Will stepped onto the platform, placed his hands on the handles on either side of the control panel, and found that he could maneuver the device backwards and forward, side-to-side, and up and down. Will determined that the machine was some type of transportation device. He looked at the other buttons and after translating them, realized that they controlled various weapon and communication systems. The timer display indicated there were twelve seconds left on the clock.

At this revelation, a message came across the screen of the control panel that stated:
You have passed the second phase by constructing the device and determining it is a hover pod. Proceed to the next phase. You may use this device as needed until you have completed the rest of the challenges.

The Maze

As soon as Will finished reading the message, a hidden door slid open that lead out of the workshop. Will maneuvered the hover pod through the opening. As soon as he was through the exit, the doorway shut behind him. He was in another tunnel. Will was able to activate the hover pod’s lighting system, and began slowly maneuvering down the tunnel on the machine. His confidence on the machine grew, and he increased his speed.

Will had traveled about a hundred
yards when he passed through the entryway of another large cavernous area. About thirty yards from the entrance Will found his next challenge. It appeared to be a maze of some sort. However, this was not like any maze he had ever seen before. It was massive. Even more amazing was that it was floating in a stationary position over a large canyon! The walls were not made of hay or corn stalks, as they had been at the county fairs he had attended as a child, but they were constructed out of some type of opaque, shimmering glass. Will cautiously touched the glass, and the second he touched it, WHAM! He was thrown back about fifteen feet in the air and landed on the ground with a heavy THUD! Will’s breath was knocked out of him.

The walls were a force field; Will thought he had been struck by lightning. After a few seconds, he got to his feet and approached the walls again, just a little more cautiously this time.

Damn
.
I won’t do that again
, he thought. Will rubbed his numbed hand that had touched the force field, and after a couple of minutes, the tingling subsided and his sense of feeling returned. Will then slowly entered the maze on the hover pod. Once inside, he stepped off of the hover pod to see if the floor of the maze would shock him as the walls did - better to know now than later. The floor did not react when Will placed his feet on it. However, it was somewhat disconcerting, for although the walls were opaque and dark, the floor was transparent, and Will could see down to the bottom of the canyon, which was at least five-hundred feet deep.

Will returned to the hover pod and continued forward. The maze wound around first to the left and then to the right, often there was an intersection that broke left, right, or kept straight. Each time, Will felt himself pulled strongly in one direction or the other. After about a half-mile, he came to the end of the maze and to another entrance. He dismounted the hover pod, walked towards the opening, and stepped through it. Will had taken about five steps through the chamber, when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Just as this happened, a twelve foot by twelve foot section of the part of the floor that Will was standing on suddenly vanished as if it had never been there! As he felt the floor begin to disappear, Will leaped up and forward and somersaulted to the other side of the hole.

Will immediately regained his feet and started forward. Will had traveled no more than a few steps when again he sensed danger. Will leaped up into the air ten feet just as a solid beam of light, like the one that had destroyed the rock in the wrong passageway, which was the width of the maze, struck where he had been standing! Will executed a diving roll and landed gracefully fifteen feet forward of his previous location, and continued onward.

He continued forward another fifty or so yards. Again Will sensed danger, and a long, heavy broadsword appeared in his right hand. Will looked down at the sword in amazement. The sword appeared to be on fire; a blue-white flame covered the entire length of the blade, but it was not burning his hand. An energy field surrounded the sword instead of actual flames. Suddenly, a huge creature out of a hellish nightmare appeared out of nowhere directly in front of him.