The Hypogeum Ch. 14-15

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is startled, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance." – Robert Collier

Loki pulled out a hunting knife and quickly cut Aloysius' bonds and then lightly slapped his friend's cheeks to bring him round. Aloysius' eyes opened and he growled, "Stop it."

The young man smiled widely, "Good to have you back mate."

Ranulf and Alma stood near the door and he risked a quick glance outside, "About twenty of them, plus the old man, I think. What have we got?"

Taika looked at the bale of straw where the three torturers had laid their weapons, "we have whatever you brought with you and three guns here as well as a few knives."

Aloysius struggled to his feet, kicked the ropes away and collected the Uzis from the bale. He passed one to Loki and kept two for himself.

They heard the old man outside shout again, "We're waiting. Nowhere for you to run, there are wards up all around this property, so the only way out is through the front door with your hands in the air!"

Ranulf called back defiantly, "You want us? Come in here and get us!"

"Now, now! There's no need for all this misplaced heroism. You've lost. We don't need to come in; we just need to make sure that you can't get out. Your interference has been... An irritation and nothing more."

"I don't know about that, we can get a lot more irritating than this. Aggravating in fact!"

The old man laughed, "Laugh while you may. We still hold all the cards."

Whilst Ranulf and Walker traded comments, Aloysius looked around the room and noticed a small window set high in the wall. He held the Uzis by their straps in his teeth and jumped up to grab hold of one of the thick rafters that ran the length of the building. Then he pulled himself up and clambered into a position that gave him a commanding view of the courtyard. He checked that his Uzi was set to full automatic and then at a nod from Ranulf, pulled the trigger and sprayed the courtyard with bullets.

Men jumped back at the sudden attack and all took cover wherever they could find it. Walker ducked back into the doorway of the house and shouted at his soldiers, "Get them! Get in there and kill them!"

Two men returned fire and then used basic fire and manoeuvre to move forward. As one ran forward, the other provided covering fire, which might have worked had they been using cover, as it was they were framed perfectly in Aloysius' sights and he took them both out with a couple of quick bursts.

Meanwhile, at the doorway Alma held her pistol and squatted down next to the door as Ranulf quickly leaned out and fired off a couple of shots at where he had last seen another enemy taking cover, wounding him in the leg. All could hear the man's screams as he dropped his weapon and grabbed at the bleeding hole in his upper thigh.

A volley of automatic fire answered their first blood and the team was forced to take cover. They could hear the crack-thump of rounds hitting the side of the barn, and Aloysius quickly dropped back to the ground as a bullet smashed through the window, narrowly missing his head and covering him in shards of broken glass.

At the other end of the room, Loki found another door that led out to the side of the barn, he pulled a handful of silver balls from his pocket, took a deep breath, flung the door open and threw the balls out before slamming the door closed again. Two or three rounds burrowed into the wooden frame and he heard at least two people running toward him. The footsteps started to stumble and were soon followed by two fairly loud thumps. After that, all he could hear was the sound of the balls ricocheting around and the occasional soft plopping as they struck flesh.

Taika had by this time retreated to the back wall and was kneeling down with her eyes closed apparently oblivious to everything that was going on around her.

Nigel could see that no one was watching him, so he sidled closer to the trap door, waiting for his moment. He knew his chances of survival were slim whilst he remained here, regardless of whom won the fight, if he could only get to Baphomet. The demon would protect him, after all, wasn't he a red robe? Was he not the one entrusted with the creation of DataVault? He reached out and rested his hand on the handle of the trap door and waited for his moment.

The group in the barn heard the unmistakeable sound of a car engine starting and then a screech of tyres as a vehicle was driven wildly at the barn door. A long volley of automatic gunfire accompanied the car as it crashed into the door and sent splinters of wood in all directions.

Ranulf and Alma threw themselves down to avoid the shrapnel. Sadly for the attackers though, the car failed to crash through the side of the barn and it just sat unable to move, blocking the main entrance.

Ranulf rolled to his feet, dived onto the bonnet of the car and planted several rounds into the body of the man at the wheel. As he did so, the passenger of the car raised his short-barrelled rifle to shoot back. Before Ranulf could adjust his aim, he heard a loud bang right next to his ear and saw a small circle appear in the forehead of the man in the car. He rolled off the bonnet and back inside where he could see Alma stood rock still, her face a mask of horror as she still stood, arms outstretched holding her pistol.

He pulled her to one side away from the rounds that were still flying in their direction and held her close, she was crying and sobbed, "I never killed anyone before."

Much as he wanted to comfort her, Ranulf had no time and another face appeared in his field of vision, he raised his weapon and pulled the trigger, there was a click and nothing more.

The other man raised his rifle just as Aloysius stepped in front of him and fired a burst from the Uzi straight into his face, "How many times have I told you to count your shots?" he asked as the enemy fighter collapsed on to the floor.

Ranulf squatted down next to Alma and reloaded his pistol. Aloysius rushed over to where Loki stood by the side door. He said, "Call the Dancers back."

Loki opened the door a crack and pushed his hand out as he whistled. Once the last Dancer had been retrieved, he moved to one side so that Aloysius could dive through the door. The giant landed on the ground next to two dead bodies that were riddled with holes, and quickly fired a round into the midsection of another man who was running towards him.

Then he was up and running, firing shots in all directions and every one of them hit a soft target. Soon the last enemy standing was Adrian Walker, who was aghast at the speed with which these few people had methodically worked their way through his entire guard force.

The old man faced the giant who appeared in front of him with an expression of resignation and a pistol held limply in his hand. Aloysius took the weapon from his unresisting fingers and asked, "Anyone left for me to kill?"

For all of his previous arrogance and self-assurance, Adrian could only stand in shock and awe of this man who he had just seen destroy his small army. The hot barrel of an Uzi was placed against his forehead and the question was repeated, Adrian shook his head. Only moving when the weapon was lowered and Aloysius motioned him out into the courtyard.

"We've done it," called Aloysius.

The others in the party exited the barn via the side door, all except Taika who still remained sat in silence at the back of the barn and Sir Nigel, who was cowering on the floor next to the trapdoor.

Ranulf shouted, "Is he the last one?" to which Aloysius nodded confirmation.

As Adrian saw Alma come into view, he suddenly changed from the broken man into a spitting demon, hatred came off him in waves, "You!" he screeched and ran at the young woman with hands out in front of him like claws, "You bitch! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

He stumbled and looked down at his chest where a hunting knife was embedded up to the hilt, Adrian fell to his knees and coughed, blood oozed from his mouth. He fell forward onto his hands and looked up at Alma, "This wasn't supposed to happen... He promised me..."

Loki, who had thrown the knife answered, "He promises a lot of things. Now why don't you just die?"

Adrian collapsed onto his front and his eyes stared unseeing into the middle distance. He coughed once more and then died.

Ranulf watched Adrian die and then looked around, "Where's Winthrop?" he asked.

Loki's eyes widened and he ran back to the barn door, he looked inside and could only see Taika still in a trance and an open trap door.

"He's gone to Baphomet," he called back, "Do we follow him?"

Ranulf swore and then said, "No, we need to be elsewhere for now," seeing the questioning looks from Alma, Loki and Aloysius, he continued, "We have some missiles to stop."

* * *

Erika Olafsdottir looked at her display screen as she attempted to serve the next customer, where she worked as a teller in the Reykjavik office of the Kreupthang Edge bank, and was surprised to see her screen go suddenly blank, she quickly pressed a few buttons on her keyboard and then tried to ring the IT service desk. She couldn't get through.

* * *

Phanindra Panishwa stopped trying to run his diagnostic program on the network server of IndCo plc and turned towards his supervisor with a worried expression, "I don't know what's happening. I can't get anywhere. It won't let me even list the files in my own personal directory."

* * *

Aleksei Ivanovitch was screaming down the phone, "I've had the President of the company bursting my eardrums this morning! If you don't get to the bottom of this, you're fired! I don't care what it will or won't do, that's your department. Heads will roll for this, I'm telling you!"

* * *

Sergeant George Wisbecki was startled by a red light flashing on his boards; he scanned the computer screen in front of him. His brow furrowed as he typed some commands into his keyboard, a few moments later irritation turned to shock and he grabbed his phone, "Sir, there's a problem. The system's warming up. Looks like we're readying launch sequence... I know Sir; I think there's an intrusion attempt in progress... Yes Sir..." he tapped some more commands into his terminal, "Counter measure initiated... Looks like the board is clearing... I don't know Sir, possibly a system failure, but we have backups, as you know Sir, wait a moment... No Sir, the launch sequence has reinitiated. We're being breeched Sir... Yes Sir!"

He put the phone down and got back to his terminal.

* * *

Aloysius, Loki, Ranulf and appeared back in the builder's yard behind the WinCom office, Alma having stayed with Taika in the barn, right into the amazed view of a young store man who had been counting paving stones. He watched in shock as the giant dropped a bergen on the floor and then started passing weapons and ammunition to the other two. Ranulf took a pump action shotgun and started thumbing rounds into the breech, as he looked across at the shocked store man and said, "Best you go home Son, its gonna get quite loud round here in a minute or two."

The young man backed away and then turned and ran.

Once everybody was armed and fully equipped the three men piled over the wall, unlike their last visit, there was no attempt at stealth.

* * *

Sir Nigel Winthrop was scared out of his wits and struggling for breath, he had ran almost all the way along the corridor to the vault where Baphomet resided. He grabbed a dagger, hurried to the central stone and drew the dagger across his forearm. Baphomet transformed from the stone image into flesh and blood and asked his disciple, "Why have you come here? You are supposed to be overseeing the DataVault attack."

Beside himself with fear, Sir Nogel fell onto his face at Baphomet's feet, "Milord, I have come to warn you. Walker has failed you and the Mother is here."

"What?" roared the demon.

"Yes lord, all of the foretold ones gather at your gates and are on their way to attack you here."

"Does the DataVault program continue as planned?"

Feeling somewhat braver now, Sir Nigel looked up at his Lord and Master, "I had the programming team begin earlier this morning and your brown robes gather at Stonehenge to offer blood rites and worship in your honour. The WinCom offices are too heavily defended to be attacked, so I thought it best to warn you of the approach of our enemies."

The demon stood in deep thought and then said, "It is good that you have come to me, Winthrop. Perhaps you are not as useless as the fool Walker thought you were."

Sir Nigel cowered down and answered, "I live but to serve you Lord Baphomet."

Baphomet reached down and offered a tentacle to the shaking Winthrop, "Then stand up and serve me, my loyal disciple."

Sir Nigel warily accepted the cold tentacle of his god and stood up, "What is it you want of me Milord?"

Suddenly, the demon's tentacles wrapped themselves around Sir Nigel's arm and lifted him off the ground so that he was face to face with him. More tentacles grabbed Winthrop's other arm and he was held suspended like a crucifix. Baphomet's hot, nauseating breath washed over Sir Nigel as the demon said, "If I am to fight the Mother on this day then I will need to keep my strength up. Winthrop, I will be requiring your life."

The old man started kicking and screaming in fear as he felt long, sharp teeth press into the top of his head and under his chin, only stopping when Baphomet snapped his teeth together and bit off his face with a sickening crunch.

* * *

All three companions approached the front side of the building, Ranulf and Loki from one side, Aloysius at the other. A uniformed guard turned the corner and came face to face with the giant. The look of surprise on his face was soon replaced with pain as a giant hand snaked out with surprising speed and hit him on the side of the neck, there was a cracking sound and the guard crumpled to the floor.

Aloysius stepped over him and continued on his way. At the other end of the building, Loki leaned around the corner and aimed his high-powered rifle at the uniform stationed at the entrance to the car park. He checked that the silencer was fitted correctly and then fired a single shot. Ranulf watched the man collapse to the ground and then ran forward to join Aloysius coming from the other way, so that they arrived at the front door at the same time. Both blasted a few rounds at the glass doors, but were astonished to see that the doors withheld the force of their bullets.

Loki ran forward and threw something, he shouted, "Take cover!" and crouched down covering his ears.

Both Ranulf and Aloysius moved back from the doors, only having to wait a second or two as the explosive charge that Loki had thrown did its work. There was a loud boom and a small fireball that shattered the glass leaving a huge hole that all could easily use to enter the main foyer. Guards came from all corners of the room to repel the intruders and the ratatatat of automatic weapons was deafening.

Ranulf could see that hey were outgunned, so he mimed an explosion by moving his hands apart with spread fingers. Loki nodded and threw another bomb into the foyer through the gaping hole where the doors used to be. Another explosion rocked the ground and Ranulf risked a quick glance in through the haze and smoke to see that most of the guards in the foyer were either dead or incapacitated. Then he motioned Aloysius forward so that the warrior could clear the remainder of the ground floor.

Eric Jenkins oversaw his team beavering away at their terminals, all busy controlling the vast swathes of data that was being directed toward the Fort Greely Missile base in Alaska. The processing power of every server and supercomputer under their control was being used to gain entry to the missile launch control system. So far they had managed to crack some of the firewall safety programs and were currently trying to get through a wall of 256bit encryption.

As he looked at the clock on the wall, he wondered where Sir Nigel was, he would have thought that his boss would want to be here while this important operation was in progress, especially after the excited phone he had received in the early hours, ordering him to get everyone into the building and start the Hypogeum program a good month ahead of schedule. He was interrupted in his thoughts by a strange sound at the edge of his consciousness.

That sounded like gunfire.

There it was again. He looked around the room and could see that none of the other programmers had appeared to hear it.

Aloysius fired his last shotgun round and threw the weapon to the floor, drawing a pistol and his favourite weapon, the Jian sword, he closed with the last remaining guard in the stairwell leading to the third floor, he and his two friends already having cleared all the other floors of enemies. His sword lashed out and the guard dodged to the side only to receive a crushing blow to the temple from the butt of Aloysius' pistol.

Another couple of guards who were running down the stairs from the third floor met their ends in a similar way.

Ranulf and Loki had taken the lift up to the fourth floor and were using the fire and manoeuvre techniques taught to them by Aloysius to good effect, wiping out every enemy that crossed their path.

They met with Aloysius at the door to the third floor where Ranulf said, "Aloysius, you deal with the control room, me and Loki will take out the server."

Aloysius nodded and accepted some explosives from Loki before heading out to the security door, beyond which were the programmers who were controlling the end of the world.

At the same time Ranulf and Loki were hurrying downstairs to the server farm that housed the computer that was currently attempting to hijack the missiles.

* * *

General Jackson strode into the control room and barked, "Report!"

Sergeant Wisbecki saluted and answered, "Sir, someone or something has been trying to take control of the missiles in silos three and five. We don't know where the attack is coming from Sir. The NSA is trying to tie it down, but at the moment they can't tell."

"Don't they have any ideas where it's coming from?"

"It appears to be coming from everywhere Sir. So far, we've been able to block its access, we have three people altering the launch codes manually every couple of minutes. But it's only a matter of time before the attacker takes control, we simply can't keep up."

"Can you do anything else to stop it?"

"No Sir."

The General looked furious and said, "Get me the President on the phone, right now!"

* * *

Eric Jenkins was thrown from his chair by the explosion that took the steel door completely off its hinges. All of the programmers who had been working away at their desks joined him to look goggle eyed at the giant who strode through the twisted wreckage of the door, he was brandishing a wicked looking sword and carrying several small bombs in the crook of his other arm. He shouted, "Everyone who wants to live, get the Hell out now!"

No one needed to be told twice and everybody streamed from the room, pushing and shoving in their haste to get away from Aloysius. For his part, Aloysius ignored the WinCom employees jostling their way to safety and started placing charges at random around the room. As he placed each one down, he pressed a button on the side, which activated a timer that showed five minutes and then started counting down.

Once he had placed the last charge, Aloysius strode back into the now deserted corridor and made his way down the stairs to the foyer. He could hear Sirens in the distance, getting closer all the time.