Mitchell’s here, he’s the ghost in the machine, he’s directing the alpha queen through her biotech. I’ve got to reach her before he carries out his plan—
Mercy ran to the next door and pushed it open. Another long corridor opened up before her. The metallic walls were splattered with old blood. She ignored the gore and pressed on, her silenced pistol held out in front of her. Her bare feet made no noise and she reached the end of the corridor a few seconds later. The hum of machinery was louder, a palpable vibration came up through the floor.
A T-junction. Which way? Shit, Rose… where are you?
Mercy turned left and approached the room at the end. The door was open, she listened at the entrance then burst in.
Empty—
A collection of radiation suits and respirators hung on the wall. Rows of lockers lined both sides of the room. The others piled in behind Mercy.
No, no, no, there’s nothing here from Rose. Move on—
Barnes beckoned to Mercy from the corner of the room, “Here, look, an internal CCTV feed from the other rooms in the silo. It’s on a loop. Wait for it, it’s coming up… there, see—?”
Barnes jabbed his finger at a fleeting image.
Mercy tensed, “That was Rose, top right hand corner… hang on, what was that? Looks like a… control room. That bitch is standing beside Rose—”
The image disappeared, replaced by flashes from other rooms in the silo.
“Wait for it again,” Barnes said. “It’s coming—”
The image flashed up on the screen a few seconds later.
“Shit, the rest of her pack’s in there with her, five of them… and did you see that DARPA robot in the corner?” Mercy gripped the sides of the screen. “It looks more human than the ones in Annapolis, it’s not moving. Shit, I don’t like the look of this—”
“The queen’s using Rose’s hands on that control desk. Did you see her? Rose is in that fixed chair, the alpha’s standing over her. She’s manipulating Rose’s hands—” Barnes said, his hands clenched.
The image disappeared then returned again.
“There, on top of the screen there’s a label… it’s the launch room,” Jade’s voice came from behind.
They stared at the image again.
Christ—
“Her hands, the alpha has tied her own hands to Rose’s hands,” Mercy said. “They’re using Rose’s body and biometrics… it makes sense. They’re all dead… that desk, those controls, it needs a flesh and blood, live human to input the launch code. The queen took Rose for herself but Mitchell’s now taken control of the queen for… his missile launch. We’ve got to get in there and stop this, we’ve not got enough time, we have to do something now—”
The right turn back at the T-junction, the machinery sound was louder back there. Computer servers need cooing. Maybe we’re close—
Mercy faced the others. “There’s only room for one at a time in these corridors. I saw three doors into the launch room on that screen, we won’t know which one we’ll enter through. I’ll go first.” Mercy paused then looked at Barnes, “No, Jade, you go first and blast the five alphas with your SMG. Don’t worry about head shots, just stagger them, aim centre mass. Barnes you go for the head shots with your rifle. Annalise, are you good with that thing?” Mercy pointed at Annalise’s shotgun.
Annalise chambered a slug round and nodded, “Good enough—”
Mercy grunted, “Right, well, I don’t like the look of that DARPA robot in the corner. Most of its body seems armored. See if you can send a slug round into its head… judging from the robots we encountered in Annapolis all their sensory input is through there. Try and knock it out—”
Flynn stepped forwards, “Yeah and hello? What about me and Tawny?”
Mercy shook her head, “There’ll be a lot of shooting in there, a good chance of catching a stray round, and there’s not that much room. Me, Barnes, Jade and Annalise will be in there. You and Tawny need to watch our six. Once the shit hits the fan more of those tropes or DARPA bots might show up behind us. Your job is to watch our back and keep the corridor clear—”
Tawny nodded. She pulled a stick of gum out from her shirt pocket. She put the gum in her mouth and started chewing.
“Makes sense,” Flynn said.
“We ain’t got no frags, so make every bullet count,” Tawny said to Flynn.
“We ain’t got no frags, so make every bullet count… that’s good, I like that. If we get out of this alive I want a T-shirt with that printed on it,” Flynn replied.
Mercy led the way back to the T-junction. She took the right turn and followed the long dimly-lit corridor to another room at the end. The door was open, two vertical columns were just visible. A few steps led up to a raised dais, the room was lit by ceiling strip lights.
That’s it, I recognise it from the CCTV—
Mercy beckoned Jade forwards. “OK Jade, you’re up first, remember focus your SMG on the pack, centre mass shots, stagger them. Leave the queen to me. Barnes has got your back. Annalise’s job is to knock out that DARPA bot. You got it?”
Jade checked her MP5 submachine gun, “Sure… I’m good—”
“You can do this—” Mercy whispered.
Jade climbed the steps, her submachine gun at the ready.
The girl’s got guts—
Jade reached the top step and opened up on full automatic, hosing the five alphas in the middle of the room. Mercy followed close behind, running towards the alpha queen and Rose in the far corner. Gunfire filled the room behind Mercy, her eyes fell on a second DARPA robot hidden in the near corner. She swore.
A second robot… for fuck’s sake. Focus on the queen. One of the others will see it—
Mercy blocked out the noise, all her attention was on the alpha queen. The queen grabbed Rose and spun
