The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League (31 page)

“You are insane! What the hell are you talking about?” One of the people demanded.

“I recommend that you shut the hell up. If you even think about changing the commands that you have just given your employees, you will receive a nasty surprise.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Lucas? You are crazy!” A businessman pointed accusingly.

Dereck glared at the man on one of the dozens of screens. “Your surprise is standing in your office with a silenced pistol.” The business people looked around frantically at the people that were in their offices. “You won’t know who it is, and they wont tell you who they are, but the moment you back out on our deal they will put a bullet into your head and complete the project on your behalf.” He noticed some of the men and women on the screens didn’t look convinced. “Bring in Mr Crown!” Dereck called to his assistant, Shepherd.

Shepherd was a big Post-Human that acted as Dereck’s personal bodyguard. The big man stepped onto the platform holding an older man by the forearm.

This was Mr Crown, an Australian businessman who was one of the contributors to Dereck’s cause.

“Say hello, Mr Crown.” Dereck demanded as Mr Crown was tossed onto the platform and knelt on the floor staring up at the wall of monitors.

Dereck smiled at the shocked faces on the screens. “You all know Mr Crown, of course. He’s always an active partner in many of your international projects. Well here he is today, joining us for the biggest one yet.”

“P-please…” Mr Crown begged.

“This is a warning,” Dereck said looking up at the staring faces, “for anyone who thinks that I might be joking.”

Dereck held out his hand and Shepherd handed him a gun.

“This is what happens to you, if you dare try to back out on me.

Dereck didn’t even flinch when he leveled the gun at the back of Mr Crown’s head and pulled the trigger.

A loud crack echoed around the cavernous atrium.

The nice clean platform was now spoiled with a dark red arc of spilled blood and the crumpled body of the businessman.

“Is everyone clear?” Dereck asked calmly and quietly.

All the faces on the screens were either pale or angry. Some were vocal and were trying to plead with Dereck, or called him a monster, others stared in cold silence and shame.

“Q
uiet
. We are starting the machine.” Dereck looked to his project manager again. “Cam! Bring out the sacrifices and turn on the gate. We want to give our new friends a warm welcome.” He smiled back at the monitors as a phosphorescent blue glow erupted behind him. “You can’t see our new business partners, I’m sorry, but I can. Welcome to a new age!” Dereck Lucas turned back to the blue glow of the opening gate, smiling in admiration as little flecks of electricity flickered across the ten foot high oval suspended between two high powered electron magnets.

A grey skinned figure stepped out of the blue light onto the atrium floor, followed by a second. They were like gangly humanoids. They had no face and no hair and their naked bodies presented no definition of sex or muscle. The first one stared at Dereck with a blank featureless face, no eyes, or mouth or ears. Dereck smiled back at the creatures. “Welcome my friends, I promised I’d get you in.”

“THEY’VE LOCKED THE bloody doors!” Brick said, as he thumped his fist against the metal door. “I thought there would be an army or a giant fighting machine or lasers or something sci-fi, not locked doors.”

Brad smiled a little. It did seem slightly anticlimactic, but they were just humans, keeping other humans away from what they were hiding.

They had followed the corridor for twenty metres and found only this way in, or a stairwell at the end.

The stairwell, Brad surmised, would most likely take them to an exposed administrative area on a mezzanine, and that could be a benefit or it could be more dangerous. Odds were that Furnace, if she was here, was being kept on the bottom floor where trucks could load and unload equipment.

“We get though
here
, people. We get to Furnace and hopefully she will have our back.”

“
Hopefully
? You aren’t filling me with confidence, mate,” Brick said with some humour.

Esther said nothing, she had been wide-eyed and quiet since seeing her friend die.

“Got another putty bomb?” Brick asked stepping back from the door handle.

“No, but I have a brand new Colt 45 from our dead friend back there, with five rounds left.” Brad stepped back and guided Esther back with him. He then aimed the officer’s heavy pistol at the door lock and fired.

The sound rang in the corridor like thunder, leaving the door’s locking mechanism hanging in a mess from beneath the handle.

Brad kicked the door open and ducked down, leaving his two companions standing hidden either side of the doorframe. He looked inside and saw a collection of massive glass enclosures on the far side, which he calculated would be the most likely place for any kind of captives. In front of those, there was a loading area and a few tables of equipment.

To Brad’s far right were the massive roller doors at the front of the building, to the far left were offices and above them on a mezzanine, there were more. Brad’s mind organized the information at lightning speed to give him a fairly accurate floor plan of the space.

Then automatic fire erupted around the doorway. Bullets bit into the swinging door and the walls around it, and several turned the concrete wall behind him into a ragged mess.

Brad ducked back inside and Brick looked at him with worry in his eyes. He was looking for another ingenious plan.

“That must have been from the mezzanine, Brick. I didn’t get a chance to see, but I found our friend, Furnace.”

“Do you want me to go up the steps then?” Brick suggested. Brick was hoping he could change the situation somehow, but odds were they would be waiting for anyone attempting make that move. Footsteps coming down the corridor brought their attention to the doorway they had come through, and Shane appeared. He jogged down the passage to join them holding two of the security guard’s semi-silenced rifles.

“What’s the situation?” Shane said passing one of the rifles to Brad.

“We are pinned. They have automatic weapons covering this door, probably from upstairs. We aren’t sure. Our targets are on the other side of the facility.”

“What should I do?” Shane asked.

Brad was silent while he calculated.

“Will these help?” Shane said nodding toward the rifle in Brad’s hand.

Brad looked the weapon over and puzzled over its origin. For the most part the weapon was a carbon fiber casing, similar to an M16. The silencer was an interesting design and so were the additional add-ons like the net projection unit and the Taser.

“Maybe we could use something on here, the net, perhaps. Shane, get to the top of those steps with that thing, kick in the door and use the net. Brick and I will be able to see how many there are and hopefully take them out while they are distracted.”

Shane nodded, and headed for the stairs.

Brick nodded too and readied his pistol.

Brad stepped out nice and low, and aimed up toward the mezzanine.

There was a loud bang as the upstairs door was kicked open, then two guards were ensnared in a wire net fired by Shane. The fine wire looked extremely effective, so it was no surprise to Brad, that it was used on Post-Humans.

Two more guards collapsed on the steel grill of the mezzanine, as Brick fired, but a third person stepped out of the office and drew a gun of his own. Before he could react, Brad saw Shane tumble back through the doorway.

The new comer swung his gun around and aimed at Brad. Then the man hesitated and smiled.

“Apollo, I presume? Am I right, big shot?” The American man called out with a little surprise. “I thought you were the guy that hid in the office while your gang did all the hard stuff? What brings you down to our humble base of operations?”

Brad hesitated. He had never met the man before, but he could see that he had an air of authority about him, possibly Post-Human.

“Who are you?” Brad asked, immediately regretting not pulling the trigger.

“Name’s Boothe, Mr Lewis.” The bald man named Boothe turned and called over his shoulder, “
Mr Floyd
! We got someone here for you to play with.”

Brad pulled the trigger, but the man was quick to evade the shot.

He had expert training, military.

Boothe returned fire with a couple of shots that narrowly missed Brad’s head and shoulder. The man had called out to
Mr Floyd
, and there was only one Mr Floyd that Brad knew: Terrance Floyd, codename Cal. Former member of The League, and once a good friend of Brad Lewis.

The shots had ceased and Brad took the chance to peek over the large steel contraption that stood just out of the doorway giving him cover.

Boothe was gone.

“Hey there, little bug! My boss reckons I should break your arse in half. I might even enjoy the exercise.” The voice boomed out from the open facility floor.

It was Cal.

Brad scanned the scene and noticed at least four other guards with guns trained in his direction.

His
team was seriously depleted, hiding in the doorway; Only Brick and Esther remained. Shane lay crumpled and twisted at the foot of the stairs.

“Sir, how are we going to tackle this?” Esther hissed from the doorway.

“Balancing the playing field; I remove the guards,” Brad whispered, “You be ready.”

Cal stood like a massive stocky statue waiting for Brad to come out and face him. “He must not remember anything about his past. It’s as if he thinks I don’t know his strength, and is waiting to surprise me when I face him man to man. I fear Athan may have been right.” Brad muttered. “The only way I’m walking out of this is if I face him with a gun. I don’t have a chance with my fists. If he doesn’t remember that I know his strength, I may have a chance.”

Brad a friend of Cal for many years. He knew his strengths and his weaknesses. He needed to know these so that he could effectively strategize for missions back when he directed The League. Normal humans would not survive a fistfight with Cal, his re-enforced bones and thick muscle was too strong. It would be like being hit by a car, repeatedly.

Though, shooting him was sometimes effective, it depended on where he was shot. Otherwise electrocution, drowning or acids were all viable options.

“
Come on little bug
!” Cal hollered from factory floor.

Brad decided to take a challenging approach. “My name is Apollo, what makes you think I’d be scared of a big lout like
you
then?”

Cal smirked back at him. “Come over here and find out…”

Brad had the Colt 45 in the back of his belt and the silenced Beretta still in the holster at his side. In his hands was the guard’s rifle. He hoped he was holding enough firepower to be able to survive a clash with Cal.

“Let us dance then, big man.”

“’Bout time, boy. You don’t need them toys,” Cal said with a snicker as he glanced back at the guards around him for approval. “He’s mine.”

Brad marched forward with the rifle at the hip pointed at Cal’s torso.

The big man waited.

“Where do you come from?” Brad asked, hoping to string out the conflict as long as he could. If it lasted for long enough, maybe the other group would break through the front entrance and cause some kind of distraction. “What are you doing working for these scum bags? Huh?”

“What you mean
scum bags
? These are my guys, son. I should get ‘em to put a nice bullet in you just for bein’ here, but I’m givin’ you a fightin’ chance you see? You should be thanking me.”

“Maybe I should, but I won’t.” Brad moved toward the big man slowly. He had to get close enough to draw the attention away from Brick and Esther.

Cal looked like a regular person, but beneath his tidy dark blue suit, there was a body like stone. He wasn’t that fast, but if Cal managed to land a blow it could smash bones to pieces.

Brad couldn’t risk being hit, he also couldn’t kill his old friend.

The other two hiding in the corridor were ready to shoot when he made his move.

He took a deep breath.

If he needed to be able to move faster than a normal person, it would be now.

He closed his eyes and tried to centre himself. He needed to move like lightning or this man would kill him and it would all be for nothing.

Now or never.

Brad concentrated hard and fired the net.

It worked, the wire net coursed through the air toward Cal, who was still and wore a confused expression.

Time was standing still for Brad again.

The world had become a slow moving dream.

In all his years of knowing his Post-Human abilities, he had never been able to do anything besides absorb information like a sponge. He was grateful for it, but
this
made him feel like he really was one of The League.

The net wrapped around Cal’s body and outstretched hands, some of the wire net cut into the skin of his hands on impact due to the short range.

As Cal began to open his mouth to object, Brad fired the Taser, which spiraled through the air and hit him in the chest. The jolt from the Taser was something that Cal was not invulnerable to, and it sent him reeling back stumbling.

This should buy me just enough time…

Brad felt a bullet streak passed him, then another.

The guards were trying to take him out.

He pumped the rifle trigger a few times in Cal’s direction, sending the bullets screaming through the air into the brute’s stomach and legs, which fountained some blood spray into the air. He tossed the rifle aside, now it was empty, drew his Beretta and aimed for the closest guard, which happened to be a woman firing her net caster in his direction.

He could see it streaking through the air and beginning to balloon out in slow motion.

He dodged sideways behind a stainless steel fermenter and stayed low as he appeared on its far side. The net clattered against the fermenter and went spinning across the concrete floor where it finished at Brick’s feet.