01-Spark - 3. The Plant

Chapter 3. The Plant

Flying, vicious shards of glass streaked past me with deadly force even as I threw myself to the ground. The shockwave alone popped the sonics in my ears and left me dazed. I felt a cut on my arm, then the impact of my body as I hit the asphalt and a second later the sudden furnace heat of the roaring fireball as the explosion rocked the street.

Car alarms went off everywhere. Somewhere there was a crash, loud enough to reach my addled hearing. I reached up to take out the safety earplugs but a second sonic bomb blasted something further away and I left them in. I could only cower on the ground, the protection of the plugs barely shielding me from the gut-wrenching impact of the second stronger shockwave as it hit me. My vision wavered for a second and then I felt heat again, but less intense this time. I scrambled onto my knees. Something was burning nearby, and the reek of burning plastic wafted down on the erratic breeze. Dimly, I heard screams. I tore the earplugs out, useless now after two blasts anyway, and the volume of the screaming increased. Shakily, I got up, looked around.

The City Hall dome was gone.

The very building I’d come out of had obviously been the target of the second blast. The ornate dome with its spire had been destroyed, and smoke billowed out heavy and thick from the gaping hole. I had come out the back, so I couldn’t see the damage up front. Not that it mattered. A sonic bomb of that magnitude would have fractured the foundations of the entire structure. The incendiary payload was just icing on the cake. If the people inside didn’t come out now before the thing started to crumble, they never would.

I didn't stay. I could do very little to help, and it was obvious that this attack was meant to draw attention. Carefully but quickly I walked away from the already-gathering crowds, heading straight for the next subway entrance. Sirens began to wail as I walked, and the thick smoke rose further up into the sky. Whoever had planned this had known just where to strike to create maximum chaos. Every Peacekeeper in the city would probably be summoned to City Hall to help with the rescue efforts. Ops headquarters was underground, safe from the impact, but even they would be unable to extract themselves from the mess for some time with the building so weakened that it might just crumble on top of their heads at any moment. The elevator shaft was an option for them to get out, if the thing still worked. If not then they would have to climb out the slow way. And in the meantime the Mainlanders would strike.

I hurried my pace, dodging curious onlookers. Maybe the intel had been wrong. Maybe the agents had reached the Plant even now, having sent only one suicide bomber to City Hall. Maybe it was already too late and they were already hitting our spark, destroying our only source of energy for good. Or maybe not. Maybe I still had a chance.

I did not run because even now it was best not to draw attention to myself. I had no way of knowing if any other Ops operatives had been dispatched to the Plant already, or what the plan was other than my own instructions. I had no way to ask now, so what I had would have to be enough. I went down to the subway tunnels, waited for the Plant line train, and got on just like dozens of other shift workers heading there. Some were talking about the commotion, but most others were just bored. I sat down, took out my pad and began to read, memorizing as much information as I could from the layout of the Plant, schedules and employee profiles as my subway train passed station after station. I kept glancing up every few seconds to see if we were any closer to the Plant. I counted off eleven stops intermittently, dividing my attention between the information on the pad and my anxiety at getting there. I scanned the faces of the workers traveling with me, discreetly activating the pad’s NFC to verify their credentials. All of them checked out, and all of them matched their profile picture. No luck there. Finding the agents before they acted was going to be a question of luck as much as a question of skill.

Thirty minutes later we finally reached the last stop. The Plant was well outside the city, the only surviving building in a burned-out and crumbling area of monumental constructions from decades past. It looked strange, seeing it up close as I exited the subway. I had never actually been there before. The combination of graceful white arcs intersecting at impossible angles, the collection of enormous windows reflecting back the sunlight in many places and the massive metallic superstructure supporting the entire central column were very impressive. I hurried along with the workers, scanning the area as I did. The Plant was the one place in the entire city that still had automated maintenance systems, and it showed in the perfectly-manicured gardens, the spotless gleaming metal and even the smooth whoosh of the automated doors as I walked into the main atrium. I glanced at the pad. Every personnel heat signature within its ten-meter radius was properly identified and accounted for.

There was a security checkpoint through which everybody was filing in. Two lightly-armed guards were stationed on either side. I had seen two other guards patrolling the perimeter outside, and I was sure there were others I had not seen yet, on the lookout throughout the many levels of the Plant. The place was big, bigger than a single man could hope to check by himself in a single afternoon. I would need their help if I wanted to find the agents before they could do any real damage.

As I passed the checkpoint, I received an information update on the pad. It was a 3-D map of the entire Plant, showing the areas that were already under surveillance and the ones that weren't. I skimmed it, noting that security personnel had deliberately left one clear access path to the very center of the Plant unguarded. That was where I needed to go. Anybody who tried to break in would choose the easiest route. Even if they took a different path, their goal would still be the same: the genesis chamber. If I didn't find them on the way there, I would wait for the Mainlander agents outside the chamber itself as a last resort.

The guard to my left ignored me carefully, and the one on the right gave me a visitor badge and a locker key.

“Dressing rooms are down the hall and to the left,” he said offhandedly. “There's a uniform in there for you.”

I nodded and walked away. At least they had known to expect me. I found the dressing rooms easily enough, walked to the men's section and down the aisles lined with lockers, looking for the one that matched my key. I saw it on the third aisle, walked over to it and opened the locker door. Within it was a Plant worker uniform: sturdy ionized jacket and pants, white shirt and heavy boots, plus a manager’s badge. I took everything out and changed into my new clothes, taking care to hide my gun and other gear from view as much as I could. Fortunately, the uniform fit just right and with enough room for my gear in its pockets. The clothes were identical to the ones I’d seen people wearing as I was coming in, and the one or two guys changing into them in the dressing rooms with me right now gave me curious looks but did not engage me in conversation. I did not know if they had been briefed, or if they were just wondering whether I was new.

When I was finished I affixed the manager’s badge to the front of the jacket. I took out the pad and performed a quick scan of the people nearby. Everything seemed in order. I put the pad back in a side pocket of the uniform, closed the locker and pocketed the keys. I was turning around to leave when a guy walking by caught my eye.

I blinked, stopped too suddenly, and drew his attention to me. Our eyes met.

“Andy,” I said, too surprised to think.

Andy's eyes widened in fear and recognition. He stayed stock-still for an instant, and my eyes flickered down to his chest and the badge he carried there. It was a Peacekeeper’s badge prominently displayed, a perfect imitation of mine in every detail but my name and picture.

I felt a chill of cold certainty crawl up my spine as everything clicked into place and I understood. Andy, from the Mainland. Who just casually managed to meet a Peacekeeper for a hookup last night, one who would have unquestioned clearance to access the Plant.

My hand reached for my gun. Andy saw the motion and bolted.

“Hey!” I yelled, hurrying after him. “Stop!”

Of course he didn't stop. I saw the door to the dressing rooms slam open ahead of me with Andy's passage and I rushed after him, gun in hand, dropping all pretense at stealth. Surprised Plant workers stopped to look at me but I scarcely noticed them. This was it. If Andy got away it could be over for all of us.

I surged into the corridor, looking wildly left and right. I caught a glimpse of movement to the right, away from the main entrance. My boots squeaked on the floor as I changed direction and sprinted after him. Behind me I heard the heavy footsteps of other guards, hurrying to help, but they were too far away.

Andy stopped at the end of the corridor maybe five seconds ahead of me. He stuck something small something the wall, pressed a button and disappeared down a side hall. The thing he’d put there beeped once, and then started to glow.

“Mainlander!” I yelled, pointing, to alert any other guards that were within earshot. I sped past the glowing dot at full speed just as it occurred to me that it might be a—

But it wasn't a bomb. Instead an earsplittingly loud alarm noise started blasting off every speaker in the damn compound. Red lights started flashing intermittently and everybody panicked. Whatever Andy had stuck on the wall was probably the source of the disturbance but I had no time to check.

I made a hard right and barely caught sight of Andy running down a flight of stairs. People were in my way now, hurrying in the opposite direction as they evacuated, and I shoved them roughly away in my haste to catch up to my quarry. They seemed to be deliberately delaying me, and with so many people everywhere I couldn't even fire a shot and risk hitting an innocent bystander.

“Out of my way! Peacekeeper!”

It was infuriating. I rushed down the stairs, my heavy boots clanking on the metal steps, but by the time I got to the bottom Andy had already disappeared.

“Fuck!” I yelled in frustration, shouldering somebody aside. He started to protest, then saw the gun in my hand and decided against it.

The corridor branched out in three different directions, and there were two elevators leading further down into the compound. I took out my pad. Where were the other guards? There were none on this level and I had no time to go look for them. I also couldn't just take off down a random path and hope to find Andy. I had to think.

I knew from basic training that the Plant had been designed with several failsafe measures in mind. In the event of a catastrophe, either human or natural, the different levels would seal off sequentially to prevent the spark source from escaping safe containment and creating an even bigger mess. Whatever Andy had done appeared to have started the emergency containment procedure, judging from the information updates flashing through my pad and the throngs of people hurrying to get out of the lower levels. I hadn't even thought it was possible to hack the failsafe system and fool it into thinking that a natural disaster or whatever was happening in the first place. The Mainlanders had just cracked a supposedly uncrackable system. Not that it mattered. I had to deal with this on my own now.

The lower levels would be the first to close off automatically, regardless of whether everybody was out or not. Upper levels would seal off at regular intervals after that, rendering the entire facility impenetrable for as long as a security lockdown was in effect.

Of course. I stopped dead in the corridor I had been crossing, forcing the workers to hurry around me. If it was a suicide mission, and if the Mainlanders managed to get inside the genesis chamber before that level closed off, then there would be no way to get to them at all until the security lockdown was lifted, by which time they would have had plenty of opportunities to destroy our source of 02-spark. Once those huge containment barriers slammed shut, there was no forcing them open quickly at all.

It was a perfect plan, or would have been except for the fact that Andy had probably had to trigger the alarm earlier than he thought when I’d recognized him. If he was hurrying down to the genesis chamber, then that meant that there was still time for him to get there. And if he planned on getting inside, then that's where I had to go.

I didn't hesitate. I had a basic understanding of the layout the facility from earlier and I knew the fastest way to the chamber was down the elevators. I hurried over to them. They had shut down automatically with the alarm, but I could override that. I hoped. I yanked open the access panel, exposing the emergency scanner. I waved my badge in front of it. Nothing. I did it again. I got an error, saying I was already in one of the elevators.

Of course. Andy had cloned my badge.

The pad I was still carrying in my other hand beeped. I looked at it, staring at the little query underneath the Special Ops logo that asked if I wanted to override the security system for this elevator. Surprised, I tapped yes. The elevator doors swung open.

I wasted no time. I hit the button at the very bottom of the long list of floors and was pleased when the elevator doors closed promptly and I began to descend, fast. I hit the button several times for good measure, although I knew perfectly well that it wasn't helping. I had to get there. I couldn't be too late, or Andy would seal himself inside the chamber with whatever other agents had come along to finish the job. If they were successful, then the entire city would go dark in a matter of days and all our automated systems would start failing. Our life support system would go last of all, and with it everyone in the city. I couldn't let the Mainlanders do something that monstrous to so many people, no matter what political motivation they had for their attack.

The floors whizzed by as I went deeper and deeper down into the earth. I'd lived over on the Mainland myself for a while. I knew what they thought of us here on the Island, how they resented that the inhabitants of such a small place could still live with many of the benefits of technology and hold so much political power simply because we had spark. Mainlanders were either soldiers or farmers for the most part, living in primitive dwellings, having to brave the brutal winter months using coal stoves when we had air conditioning, having to walk long miles between their scattered ruined cities when we still had a working subway and cars. They hated us. I could understand their point of view, but that didn't mean I would let them destroy the one thing that kept the city going.

The way down was taking forever. I fiddled with my gun, itching to burst out of the doors and fight, even if it meant taking down Andy by my own hand. It was strange, thinking about him now. Mixed in with the cold determination of completing my mission was also a surprisingly sharp sense of disappointment at finding out why Andy had sought me out in the first place last night, why he had seemed so perfect and eager to please. I tried to recall the sense of happiness that I had felt just this morning, but I couldn't. I knew it had just been a one-night stand, and that I probably would never have seen him again either way, but finding out that he had pretended to like me, and probably orchestrated the entire encounter so he could more easily accomplish his murdering of thousands of innocent people, was like a kick in the crotch. It made me angry. But, unavoidably, it also made me sad. It was a strange destiny for me to have to kill the one person I had felt close to in more than two years. I had even, stupidly, entertained half a dream that I would maybe see Andy again and start something with him. I sneered ruefully. Small chance of that now.

The elevator stopped and I swallowed, making my ears pop from the rapid descent. I was deep underground now, probably sealed off from the outside world by thick steel plates that wouldn't open for several hours. I wasn't worried so much about that as about being too late for what I had to prevent.

The elevator doors opened. I rushed out, gun ready in my hand.

hr />   Thank you very much for reading! I will be releasing weekly updates to this story (Mondays), so you can follow it if you would like to be notified when the next chapter  is posted.  If you've enjoyed it so far, please go ahead and give it a quick like so I can feel better about myself.    I also have a few other stories already published here on GA,  which you can check out if you have some free time on your hands.  Just stop by my author profile. See you next week!
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