Nightfall Read online

  Nightfall

  Rewind 717 - Episode 3

  Christian Kallias

  Contents

  Also by Christian Kallias

  Acknowledgments

  Copyright

  1. Mission completion time: T minus 105 minutes

  2. Mission completion time: T minus 83 minutes

  3. Mission completion time: T minus 69 minutes

  4. Mission completion time: T minus 27 minutes

  5. Mission completion time: T minus 12 minutes

  6. Mission time elapsed

  Want to read another Cole Seeker story right now?

  Thanks to all my patrons

  Also by Christian Kallias

  About the Author

  Also by Christian Kallias

  The Universe in Flames Series

  Book 1: Earth - Last Sanctuary (Definitive Edition)

  Book 1.5: Ryonna's Wrath (Novella)

  Book 2: Fury to the Stars

  Book 3: Destination Oblivion

  Book 4: The Beginning of the End

  Book 5: Rise of the Ultra Fury

  Book 6: Shadows of Olympus

  Book 7: Armageddon Unleashed

  Book 8: Twilight of the Gods

  Book 9: Requiem of Souls

  Book 10: To End All Wars (Conclusion of Fury Arc)

  Books 1-5 available on Audiobook.

  Universe In Flames - Origins

  Episode 1: Course Correction

  Episode 2: Damocles Fall (Definitive Edition)

  Universe In Flames - Dark Legacy Series

  Book 1: NEMESIS

  Book 2: Unleashed (fall 2019)

  Far Beyond Series

  Book 0: Across the Galactic Pond

  Book 1: Fire at Will

  Book 2: Make it So!

  Book 3: Battlestations!

  Rewind 717 Series

  Episode 1: Freedom’s End

  Episode 2: Pandemonium

  Episode 3: Nightfall

  Acknowledgments

  Cover artwork by Christian Kallias,

  [email protected]

  www.christiankallias.com

  www.facebook.com/ChristianKallias

  www.twitter.com/kalliasx

  Production Editor & Alpha/ARC Team Lead

  Paula Lavattiata Lopez- myeditcheck.com

  Editors

  Paula Lavattiata Lopez - myeditcheck.com

  Philip Newey

  Proofreaders

  Paula Lavattiata Lopez

  Philip Newey

  ARC Team (thanks everyone!)

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2019 by Christian Kallias christiankallias.com/art (Futuristic city on cover by Tom Edwards / tomedwardsdesign.com)

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  First Printing of original book(s), 2016

  Version 1.5

  One

  Mission completion time: T minus 105 minutes

  We’re at a secondary safe house, the one nearest to our next destination: ground zero. That is if Ahmed keeps the same target, but it’s not easy to move a nuke to a new location without being detected less than two hours before it’s meant to detonate. Of course, he could decide on a different timeframe now.

  Tanya is ninety-seven percent sure neither the target nor the timeframe has been altered. She compared the online chatter with the real-time data she compiled pre-mission, and that’s how she calculated that high probability figure.

  I’m flash-recharging my core systems, and, in fact, I’m over-charging them. A procedure that’s not without risks, and there is a margin for error here. My body’s internal power circuitry, thanks to a few clusters of nanites acting as temporary capacitors, allows me to store an additional thirty-five percent power, but the excessive power will drain rapidly. Still, it should allow me to perform this last part of our mission at full power and then some.

  I can’t help but blame myself for not shooting that son of a bitch earlier, while he was on his ship. I’d given my word that I wouldn’t, but what good is my word now? And only god knows what shape Eleanor must be in.

  I have her vitals on my HUD. They’re fluctuating every few minutes and not in a good way. I know exactly what that means, Ahmed is torturing her, either for information or for spite. He could easily have located and disabled her life signs transmitter, but he wants me to know what he’s doing to her.

  He wants to make me mad again, and it’s working. I have to use a lot of self-control not to punch everything in sight. I feel the need to destroy this place and then some. It becomes imperative for me to think about something else and fast.

  “Any success accessing the data on the chip?” I ask Tanya.

  “No, Cole. The multi-layered encryption on it is too strong. We won’t be able to decode the data with my computing power alone.”

  “Can’t you network?”

  “I could, but you’ve given me specific orders, for the time being at least, to keep this for your eyes only.”

  “So?”

  “So if I network with other computing processing units around the city, there’s a risk the data could be intercepted. We can either sit tight on the data and hope to access it over time or risk exposing it to the company and other parties.”

  Not really a choice I’m happy to make.

  But it’s the darnedest thing; I have a hunch that this data is too sensitive even for Rewind to get access to. Not that I can be sure Tanya’s demilitarized memory banks really work as they should.

  “Can you dump the raw data from the device?”

  “I can.”

  “How long will it take?”

  “Unless there are hidden partitions that won’t show until the right decrypt keys are provided, the amount of data is actually quite small. The raw data is about seventeen terabytes. I can have it copied by the time you’ve finished charging, and with time to spare.”

  “Any booby traps that could trigger a self-erase mechanism?”

  “None that I could detect, Cole, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”

  I think about it for a moment. “Start copying the data.”

  Tanya stays silent. Now is as good a time as any to apologize for my previous behavior.

  “Tanya, about earlier . . . when I shut you off. I’m—I’m really sorry. I didn’t have to be so blunt.”

  There is an uncomfortably long pause before she answers.

  “Apology accepted,” she says rather coldly.

  I didn’t expect her to be okay with a plain sorry, of course, and I know it would take time for her to really forgive me, if she will at all.

  To say I was enraged is no excuse, but that’s how I am sometimes. In the heat of the moment, I’m prone to saying things without thinking.

  “I want you to know I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I add.

  “Cole, it’s sweet of you to try to make me feel better, but it’s irrelevant right now. The only thing that matters now is completing the mission. If we don’t, not only will hundreds of thousands of people perish, but so will we. And I for one don’t want to die. I get that you’re on edge, and I get that you’re worrying about Eleanor. However, our main priority is not to get her back nor is it to kill Ahmed. Can we please agree on that?”

  Do I agree? I’m not sure, to be honest.

  If I could manage all three, save Eleanor, kill Ahmed, and defuse the nuke, then I wo
uld certainly go for it. But she’s right. I have to focus on the main objective without letting my personal feelings interfere.

  “Agreed. We stop the nuclear attack first and foremost.”

  “Good. It’s not like we have a choice. If this thing blows, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish the secondary objectives, anyway.”

  She has a point. I keep looking at Eleanor’s remote vital signs and wondering what she must be going through right this minute. I also check my charge levels; I am at one hundred and eighteen percent, soon we’ll be able to go and complete our objective.

  We have less than one hundred minutes to find and disable that nuke. That’s going to be close. If the bomb isn’t where we expect it to be, we’ll probably run out of time altogether, in which case I’m a dead man walking.

  I push the thought away. Now is not the time to let negative thoughts bring me down. I need to go in as sharp-minded as I possibly can. Today I have been off my game, and I can’t afford to go into the last sprint half-cocked.

  But there is another issue that needs to be addressed, and that’s the images of Vassiliki appearing inside my neural HUD in place of Tanya’s.

  What does they mean? At first, I was inclined to think a bug involving some leakage from my own organic memories was the cause. But the more I think about it, the less likely it seems.

  More likely is that someone is trying to tell me something. It appears they are managing to do that through Tanya’s neural net but without her knowledge.

  Whether it is one of Ahmed’s tricks to throw me off or something else, it is more worrisome than I am willing to admit out loud. Besides, the apparent security leak and all the potential dangers that come along with it, also make me extremely uncomfortable.

  Could Vassiliki still be alive?

  No! Ahmed is trying to get into my head. That’s all there is to it. He’s done his job well: he’s found information about my past and is using it as a distraction so I won’t be at the top of my game. And what better time to introduce this wild-card element into the mix than when he attempts his highest, most devastating attack. One that could bring the death toll upward to a million or more once the radiation spreads inside the dome.

  When the charge reaches one hundred and thirty-five percent, my HUD briefly flashes blue to inform me of its completion. I unplug the cable that enters the back of my neck’s power conduit and travels down my spine distributing power to all my power cells. Taking the long charging tip out of my neck is always an unpleasant tickling sensation.

  I go into the armory room of the secondary safe house and load up on all my favorite weapons. I take a couple of backups that I usually don’t bother with, but today nothing can be left to chance.

  I can’t risk either equipment failure or the wrong ordnance choice, even if that means taking a little extra charge with me.

  I am ready to wage a small war, and I have little doubt that this is exactly what awaits me. A small-scale, time-sensitive war. I crack my fingers, wrists, and neck to prepare myself mentally. I always loved the sound of bones cracking inside my own body; it provides me with a pleasurable release and helps me get pumped up.

  I walk into the garage and look at my vehicle choices. I brush with my fingers the cold, smooth surface of another jet bike, one that’s fully charged. The one I came in with, currently parked on the roof, has seen better days. It is still functional, but I have depleted most of its fusion core and it will definitely need a new paint coat. My fingers slide off the curvature of the front bodywork.

  “That’s your usual choice,” says Tanya. “It’s also the vehicle we selected in the mission parameters. Are you considering another option?”

  I don’t answer while I ponder the question. This garage has a heavy starfighter, loaded with enough ordnance to blow half the city. I approach it and put my hand on its armor plating. It’s not as smooth as the polished finish of the jet bike, and it’s even colder. I like the tactile feedback on my fingers.

  “I thought we agreed on stealth approach?” says Tanya.

  “What’s the point exactly? That made sense when we thought we were going under the radar. Ahmed is fully aware we’re coming for him. We might as well go locked, loaded, and ready to give him hell.”

  “Okay, take the starfighter. I guess a stealth approach is no longer mission-critical at this point,” Tanya concedes.

  “No, it isn’t. He’s broadcasting his location by transmitting Eleanor’s vital signs. He knows we’re coming for him. So, yeah, we need as much power as we can get, and that baby has it in spades.”

  “Except it’s been primarily designed for space combat.”

  “It may be at home in the stars, but it’s still a deadly machine on Earth. What’s with you second-guessing me every chance you get today?”

  “You’re not yourself, Cole. So I feel I should point it out whenever you do things, how should I put this . . . differently.”

  “If you died in a dream and woke up right after it, still able to feel your flesh burning on your skin and not knowing what the hell has happened, you’d be rattled as well.”

  “So, do you think it was a nightmare or not?”

  “I’ve had plenty of nightmares in my life. Whatever that was, it wasn’t a nightmare.”

  “I don’t understand why this is reason enough to throw caution to the wind.”

  “We did that the moment we lost Eleanor and failed to stop Ahmed earlier.”

  “You mean when you didn’t want to betray your principles when given the chance to end both him and the mission early? And all you had to do was lie and incinerate his ass?”

  That stings but also happens to be the truth. She is right, I could have easily killed him. Or perhaps he would have also activated his augments, and the outcome would have been the same or worse. There is no point in trying to rewrite the past, no matter how ironic that sounds in my line of work.

  “Duly noted,” I say, resigned not to debate the issue any longer.

  I walk under the cockpit and activate the trapdoor with my neural interface. The round door slides open, and a blue light spills out, turning everything in my sight a bluish tinge. I feel the force of the magnetic field lifting me up and inside the ship. When I’m inside the cockpit, the pilot’s chair slides from behind and smoothly cradles me. The trapdoor below closes with a whoosh.

  The instruments on the ship come to life. What was once a dark cockpit is now teeming with colors in a mesmerizing light show.

  The engines hum, accompanied with a slight, almost imperceptible, vibration. I could grab the joystick that morphed in front of me and fly this thing manually. Instead, I close my eyes and link my neural net with the ship’s control systems. I can now fly it using my thoughts.

  I reach out farther and call out to all the active drones in the city, including every drone from the other safe houses.

  “Isn’t that overkill, Cole?”

  “Nothing is today. We go all in. In fact, I’m also taking the liquid nano-appendages.”

  “The prototype could be helpful, but it hasn’t been cleared for mission deployment yet. It may not perform as expected. Actually, it could compromise your other augments if something goes wrong.”

  “I’m willing to take that chance.”

  I am out of the garage and in the air in no time, cruising at full speed toward ground zero position. It is the World Security Center building, one of the largest, most imposing skyscrapers in all of New Geneva. Drone Two and Three are flying in formation on my wing.

  “Tanya?”

  “Yes, Cole.”

  “In case things don’t go as planned . . .”

  “None of that, Cole. Remember our motto: failure is not an option.”

  “Be that as it may . . . I want you to know that I’m grateful for your friendship. You’re more than a tactical AI to me. I hope you know that.”

  “I know, Cole,” she says with an unusual weight behind her words.

  We are only a couple of minutes away fro
m our destination.

  “Cole, how much do you remember from your—nightmare?”

  I wish I knew for sure. It would make my next move easier. If it had been a nightmare, then none of what I experienced in it can be trusted. Yet, my instincts tell me that, no matter what it was, I need to pay close attention to it at the very least; it holds the key to my survival this time around.

  “I can remember only the second phase of the mission, where I am about to catch Ahmed. Before he—” I stop.

  “Before he kills you,” Tanya finishes for me.

  “Yeah. That’s the one part we won’t let happen this time around.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.”

  I don’t want to die today or let countless innocents suffer that same fate. But that is a far cry from feeling entirely confident about the outcome.

  I hear something over Eleanor’s mental link; she unleashes a scream that freezes my blood.

  “Dear lord,” says Tanya.

  I grit my teeth, trying to stay calm, but anger is yet again knocking at the door of my psyche. Each new shout and scream from her feels like a knife hacking at my heart. I have to use the full force of my logical abilities to not let negative emotions take over.

  Tanya cuts the transmission.

  “We don’t need to hear that.”

  She’s right. I don’t think I could have endured much more of it, anyway.

  “Can you locate the source of the transmission?” I ask.