Milwaukee Deep

Time remaining…10:16:12

Sam leaned over to Perks.

“Do you think they’ll buy this?” he whispered.

Perks kept his eyes on Harding who was standing at the far end of the control room. He was holding a conversation with Major Charles Yandell, the man in control of the transport vessel at Patrick Air Force Base.

“They have to; I didn’t travel all this way to watch it end now,” he replied.

“That’s correct, Major – time is of the essence – they could be planning another release at any moment,” Harding said.

“And who’s authorised this?”

“I have – under direct orders from the President himself.”

“And Crane?” asked Yandell.

“Crane’s no longer running things, Major. The President is.”

Yandell stood and stared at Harding.

“I need to make a call,” he finally said.

“You do that,” Harding replied.

Charles Yandell turned and walked back to his station. He picked up the phone and dialled the base operator.

“I need command on the line. Patch me through to General Conwrey.”

Yandell waited for the call to be put through.

“General, Sir, it’s Major Yandell at Patrick Air Force Base. I have with me Agent Tom Harding from the CIA. Yes, Sir…Yes, Sir, of course Sir - certainly Sir.”

The Major placed the headset down and returned to where Harding was standing.

“I’ve been ordered to assist you in any way, Agent Harding,” he said, “so what is it that you need from me?”

“Good. I need you to get him onto that mother ship,” Harding pointed to Michael who sat quietly next to both Jensen and Sam.

“But that’s suicide.”

“We know that, Major, but we’ve decided to put a stop to this - once and for all.”

“And how do you propose that?”

“Simple - we kill them all with this,” Harding raised the briefcase he was holding.

Yandell looked down at the briefcase and then back up at Harding.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“It is, but only if you’re thinking the worst.”

“So that’s it – this all ends now, huh?”

“Yes, hopefully, it ends now,” Harding replied.

Yandell turned to his control panel.

“Well I don’t mean to rain on your parade, Agent Harding, but do you see that flashing red light there?” he asked.

“Yes, what about it?”

“Well there’s a problem with your plan.”

“And that is?” Harding asked

“That red light over there represents a shift in the ocean floor - an earthquake. It registered about five point three, and it just hit today. An explosion now on the surface would have a cataclysmic effect.”

“Cataclysmic?”

“Another earthquake, Harding, only this time a lot bigger.”

“How big?”

“Big enough to send a tidal wave the size of Rhode Island crashing into Puerto Rico, Cuba and even possibly us.”

Harding clenched his teeth.

“Shit!”

He immediately turned around to where Perks was sitting and waved his hand signalling for him to come over.

“Stay here,” Perks said quietly to the trio of men nearby. He stood up and walked over to the far end of the room.

“You called?” Perks said as he reached the two men.

“We’ve got a problem, Anthony. Major Yandell here believes if we detonate this on the ocean floor, we’ll cause an earthquake – there was already one that occurred today and if it goes again we’re looking at a potential tsunami hitting Cuba, Puerto Rico and possibly the east coast.”

Perks turned to Yandell.

“Are you certain of this?” he asked.

“Very,” replied Yandell, “Sir, I mean no disrespect, but I’ve lived, breathed and shat that ocean floor for the last eleven years – I know all about them and more importantly I know all about the terrain that they rest their vessel on. Right now we’re looking at a very unstable piece of dirt and if we fuck with that, then we’re fucking ourselves, because that baby will react and send us one nasty message.”

Perks looked back at Harding.

Both men stood there absorbing what they’d been told and trying to figure out a way around the obstacle. They couldn’t.

“Is there another way?” Harding finally asked as he turned back to Yandell.

“There is, but it’s an enormous risk.”

“Risk? Major, may I remind you that that man over there has a virus in him that will eliminate the entire human race, not to mention that I have a ticking nuclear weapon in my hand that’s set to go off in just under ten hours.”

Yandell looked at Harding.

“I see your point. Come with me.”

Perks and Harding followed Yandell to his station. He pointed to a monitor that was embedded into the top of his desk.

“Okay this is a schematic of the mother ship,” he said, “here is where your man will land inside the transport ship,” Yandell pointed to the back end of the diagram, “This is the engine room and here is the central hub.”

Harding looked up to see Michael, Sam and Jensen sitting quietly at the other end of the room.

“Fellas, you might want to come over and have a look at this,” he called out.

“What’s that?” asked Perks.

“The central hub. That’s where the majority of the twelve hundred reside.”

All three men approached Yandell’s work station.

“Here,” the Major went on, “in the nose section of the ship is the safest place to detonate your weapon.”

“And why’s that?” Harding asked.

“Two reasons. The first is our scans show the greatest density of their ship’s outer hull is in the front end of the ship. We’ve assumed it’s been designed that way to absorb the impact when entering our atmosphere.”

“And the second?” Perks asked.

“Because it’s one and a half miles away from the epicentre of that earthquake.”

“Hold on,” Perks said, “One and a half miles? But you said that the transport ship will land here.”

“Yes that’s correct,” replied Yandell.

“So how does Michael get to the front end?”

Yandell turned to Michael.

“He walks.”

“What?” Sam piped up, “But that’s ridiculous. He’s not going to make it through there without being spotted.”

“I said it was risky.”

“But you didn’t say it was impossible,” Harding added.

“Well it isn’t,” Yandell replied

“Tom, if he doesn’t make it and we fuck this up,” Perks started without finishing the thought.

“I know, but what choice do we have.”

“I can do it,” Michael said calmly.

All five men turned to Michael.

“I can do this. I’ve been there once before. I know I can do this.”

Yandell turned to Harding.

“He won’t do it alone you know,” he said, “we can be his eyes and ears. We constantly monitor the ship – the USS Nimitz sits over them as we speak. Every day of the year we have one of ours watching over them.”

“How’s sonar going to help us? It’s twenty thousand feet below,” asked Perks.

“Sonar’s gone the way of the dodo, Agent Perks,” the Major pressed F12 on the keyboard in front of him.

The computer screen changed colour. The deep blue vanished and a bright green glow appeared. The contour of the mother ship brightened and small orange dots began appearing within the hull diagram.

“What are they?” asked Sam.

“That’s them. That’s their exact location. This is a live reading of the vessel – a direct feed from the Nimitz. We know where they are at all times.”

“Jesus, look how concentrated that centre is,” Sam said.

“That’s the central hub. Like I said before – the majority reside there.”

“How are you doing this?” asked Harding.

“Their ship is made from an organic compound – obviously something we haven’t ever seen on earth before, and not only can it withstand the pressure of being twenty thousand feet underwater, but also, it finds itself having the unique tendency of emitting gamma radiation.”

“Radiation?”

“Yes and every ship in our fleet is fitted with Radcom technology.”

“So we can monitor them?”

“Exactly.”

“So how do we pick up the aliens?”

“They too emit the same radiation,” Yandell replied

“Hold on,” Jensen spoke up, “if they emit gamma radiation, how did Michael, or anyone for that matter, survive down there?”

“They have the unique ability to shut it off when it suits them – don’t ask me how, but here,” Yandell pointed to a section of the diagram, “here is where they keep their,” he hesitated, “I mean this is where the humans are being kept, these are the holding cells, and in there we can never detect them.”

“So you can’t see everything?” Harding said.

“That’s correct – the only area where we have a blackout is in their holding cells.”

“Can we communicate with Michael, once he’s down there?” Harding asked

“I believe so.”

“So we could hook him up to receive and transmit, give him a weapon and walk him through the maze?”

“Yes we could do that,” the Major replied.

Harding turned to Michael.

“So what do you say?” he asked, “It’s not going to be easy.”

Michael smiled but failed to hide the tension.

“When has anything been easy?”