Chapter 13
It was running late and Al hadn’t given Seb anything new for a while, tempting him to ask… again… but Seb knew that it wouldn’t do any good. If there was anything to report, Al would have given it to him.
Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to wait, though, but this wasn’t an unusual feeling. He’d sat in on far too many missions just like this in the… past? Future? Whichever. The point was, Seb was familiar with the long stretches of mind numbing boredom.
He just couldn’t stop himself from squirming in his seat, and for once it wasn’t because he needed to run to the washroom.
Liquids are no longer my enemy. Miraculous, Seb thought with a dry sarcasm that he could feel even through his inner monologue.
No, now it seemed more like his head didn’t want to focus on anything for more than a half hour, and that was being generous.
If I’d been born five years later, I’d be on ADD drugs by this age, I just know it. Me and three quarters of the generation, most likely. Oh well.
He did what he’d always done while he waited to watch men die.
He worked.
Two more rejections had come in from other publishers, so he swapped envelopes and would send each back to the one that had rejected the other in the morning. In the meantime, he was working on another using the antiquated word processor on the Commodore.
It’s so wrong that this thing feels better than two thirds of the systems I used in the future.
“You should be in bed.”
Seb looked over, surprised by his mother’s voice intruding on his thoughts, making him jump a little.
“Sorry,” She smiled at him. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No, it’s my fault, got into this,” Seb said, nodding to the screen. “I’m just going to write a little bit more, ok mom?”
“Ok, but then? Sleep.” She said pointedly. “There’s school tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry, I know.”
“Night.”
Seb let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding, his heart beating in his ears as he took a few deep ones to settle it.
I’m going to need an alert to warn me she’s coming, or there will be questions I can’t answer, sooner or later.
Seb sighed, getting back to work.
How did my life become a young adult fan fiction?
*****
Rico Lopez dropped to his belly, shifting over behind a large stone as the rest of the team splayed out around him.
The target building was just up ahead, but the sun was now coming up in their backs and they’d have to be careful moving forward now that they would be silhouetted against the lightening sky.
Pruso had his pocket binoculars out and was scanning the old hut.
It looked like something out of a movie, a period piece from a couple hundred years back. Stone walls and chimney, what looked like a shale shingle roof, and a ragged old goat pen staked out around the side.
“I ain’t got no motion, Cap,” the Warrant Officer, Kirk Horn said after a moment. “Nothing on thermal. It’s dead.”
Pruso hummed, but didn’t say anything for a moment. Finally he looked over, “Lopez. What do you think?”
“Libya looked dead from the outside too,” He answered. “The trouble was waiting inside.”
Pruso nodded, “Alright. Split team. Horn, you take Lopez with you. Listen to him, especially if things get weird.”
“Yes sir.”
“We’ll come in from the North and South, Horn I need your team to breach. Lopez, I know it’s asking a lot, but you’re the only one with experience. We’ll cover the outside, you need to get eyes on the inside.”
Rico sucked in a breath, but he nodded, “I understand. I’ll get it done, Cap.”
“Alright, you know the drill boys. Break.”
They split up smoothly into two groups of six and diverged as they moved around to the North and South, angling in as they found cover.
Horn led them in, and they sprinted the last dozen meters or so along the old goat pen fence, sliding to a stop up against the stone piled wall of the hut.
“Breach,” Horn ordered, and Sergeant Linkletter nodded and headed for the door. “Lopez, you follow me through.”
Lopez just nodded curtly and adjusted his grip on the rifle.
Linkletter checked the door quickly, then snorted softly before he signaled them in. Horn and Rico got ready as the demo Sergeant just kicked in the door without so much as a blink.
Horn went through and right, while Rico turned left, both of them covering the interior with their weapons as they looked for any sign of occupancy.
Nothing.
“Bad intel,” Horn said, reaching for his radio.
Lopez reached out and grabbed his wrist.
“Not yet,” He hissed, eyes slowly scanning the interior as he patted Horn on the arm and began to ease himself around, rifle leading his way.
“Lopez, what the-”
Rico held up a fist before he returned it to the forward grip of the rifle, not speaking. There was no chance in hell he was going to call clear on this place until he was damned sure it was cleared.
He could feel Horn’s glare on his back, but ignored it as he froze in place.
There.
It was even harder to see in the bad light of the old hut, but the shimmer in the air was unmistakable. He signaled for alert and pointed right at it, hearing rifles swivel to the direction he pointed as he lowered his own and palmed a grenade from his belt.
“Lopez, what the hell are you doing?” Horn hissed, coming up behind him.
Rico tapped the side of his helmet then pointed two fingers ahead, right at the shimmer. Horn paused, eyes following his fingers. It took a sec, but Rico didn’t blame him. The shimmer was hard to stop and, even when you did see it… without context, it was just a weird heat thing.
“What the hell is that?”
“Not a clue, but it’s the second time I saw one. Everyone back to the door,” Rico said, “I’m going to say hello with a party favor. Get everyone out, tell the Cap. We’ve got a positive hit.”
*****
“Mein Herr, it is happening.”
Seb jolted in bed, eyes snapping awake.
He’d finally given in to the quiet and went to sleep, knowing that Al would give him a heads up if anything happened. He glanced at the time and saw that it was almost three in the morning this time.
“What is it?” Seb asked, his voice pitched low because the old house had walls of paper and he didn’t want to wake his mum, a thought that almost made him want to laugh with the absurdity of it, but he focused on getting to work.
“New Transmission from the station, Mein Herr. The code is a known one, the team has arrived and been spotted.” Al said simply.
Seb blinked, “The stations transmitted? Not the soldiers?”
“The station,” Al confirmed. “Their code includes a video component, do you wish to see?”
Seb stared for a moment, pretty certain that he’d misheard that.
“Over… shortwave?” He asked uncertainly.
“This is not on shortwave frequencies, my receiver is more capable than that. The transmitter is running a stacked transmission across multiple broadcast frequencies, including HF signals that are being intercepted after ionosphere bounces.”
“Uh, ok, sure. I’m going to need to see this,” Seb said, using his inventory to fetch a tablet. “Shoot it over.”
“Of course, Mein Herr.”
*****
Lopez underhanded the lethal egg, aiming right for the shimmer he could see, immediately falling back in case it bounced.
Just as the grenade was about to hit the shimmer, though, something he hadn’t expected happened. The shimmer folded on itself, then expanded, and a flickering limb pierced thin air and appeared out of the shimmer.
The grenade bounced off the limb, deflecting to another section of the hut as Lopez waved behind him as he dropped back.
“Back! Back! Back!” He yelled, “Get ready! Hostile contact!”
The grenade went off as he threw himself out the door, making sure he was the last of the team to do so. Rico landed hard on the mountain granite, sliding as he rolled over onto his back and swung his rifle to cover the door.
“Seargent! Report!”
“Hostile, Warrant Officer!” He yelled, not looking away from the door. “Same as Libya!”
Smoke and dust was pouring out of the door and windows of the old hut, the silence stretching out in the aftermath of the explosion. The dust started to slowly settle as it billowed out from the hut, and the quiet settled with it as everyone stared and waited.
Seconds ticked over as Rico became aware of the cold sweat beading on his face and neck, sticking his undershirt to him as he twisted, covering the building with the muzzle of the German Battle Rifle.
“I think you got it, whatever it was…”
Rico propped himself up on one elbow, keeping control of the rifle with the other hand as he pushed himself back a little more from the hut.
“I doubt it,” He said coldly.
He pushed himself a little farther back, not letting his rifle muzzle waver from the door as the silence started to feel like a weight on his chest.
“Sergeant…”
“Definitely still home, Cap.” Rico said instantly, not looking around.
“Right,” Pruso said, eyes focusing on the building. “Cover every way out.”
As he said that, the door shuddered, like someone was trying to push it open but it was jammed by… something.
Everyone’s weapons snapped up instantly, a dozen G3’s covering the door as it shuddered again, then silence fell once more.
A heartbeat passed. Then more.
Finally, Horn let out a breath, “The door was settling. That’s all.”
The hut door exploded into shards and splinters before he even finished talking, wood showering them all as the team covered their faces with their arms as an unearthly sound began to grind through the air.
Rico didn’t hesitate, he flopped over to grab the rifle with both hands and pulled the trigger.
*****
Seb stared at the footage that was coming through, taking a moment to realize that he was looking through the eyes of the enemy.
This is impossible, He thought in shock, “We’ve never seen anything remotely like this before.”
“This code was in negligible use by the time the first Q-Bit processors broke it,” Al answered, though he hadn’t actually intended that as a question. “We never broke their more advanced codes.”
Seb leaned forward as he watched the image as it flowed through the old building, coming face to face with a door so ramshackled that he was honestly surprised it was still on the hinges.
A limb, distorted and mishapen, reached out from behind the camera…
he assumed it was the invader drone’s own limb, and tested the door.
It shuddered, but didn’t give in to the testing, which Seb found surprising.
A couple more pushes, nothing happening, left Seb more confused than anything else.
I don’t see anyone. Just… looks like a stone building?
Then the image shifted, tilting slightly, before a limb exploded out while the camera charged forward at the door. The old wood didn’t stand a chance as it blew open and rained shards out across the Afghan mountainside.
As the image adjusted, Seb found himself staring at a soldier in camo holding a big rifle aimed right at the camera. The rifle roared to life, flashes of automatic fire strobing across the screen.
Oh hell. I hope they listened to me about not using low or medium powered cartridges.
He set the tablet down and grabbed his ‘go bag’, as the kids called it back in the Mountain. He’d been preparing for just this moment, though he didn’t yet know for sure if there was anything he could do.
Regardless, he would be ready if the time came.
Seb opened a rift point, grabbed Al in his other hand, and stepped through.
*****