The V.I.C.I. Diaries: Valley of the Damned (Part 19)

[DukeNukem 2417]

Björn Aaberg was terrified.

The men from KnightWind had failed. The security systems meant to kill any intruder who breached the north entrance/exit of the storage chamber had all simultaneously failed. Even the lights in the corridors leading up to his "ready room"----more of a panic room than anything else---were flickering erratically.

His entire career---his life---was about to be brought down around him.

For well over two decades, Björn had prided himself on being in control of every possible aspect of his life, from the clothes on his back to the arrangements made with his many business partners. Even in the briefest moments of freefall, when the authorities had cornered him and prepared to drag him down, he had stayed cool under pressure and built up the resources to prove himself innocent of all charges---or at the very least, to have his accusers "taken care of".

Now, for the first time in over 25 years, Björn Aaberg was completely and utterly helpless.

An ammunition storage crate lay open on the ground before him, offering several "last-ditch" options: a serum, developed for use by the Marine Corps. but rejected on ethical grounds, that would effectively turn the user into a berserker for a period of 21 seconds---or longer, if the dosage was increased; a prototype magnetically-charged railgun, built around the G11-1, that could bring down a parking garage in minutes; a half-finished exoskeletal suit that would turn the wearer into a veritable Heracles.....something in Aaberg's mind snapped. He would not be reduced to using these....toys to defend himself. He picked up the Model 37, a derranged smile crossing his face.

Tonight..... Björn Aaberg would, for quite possibly the last time, be the last man standing.

At least, that was his plan....
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"....and hiring guys from KnightWind was probably the best thing he could've done to keep himself from getting into any more trouble with the Coalition or anyone else. If he'd gone for any of their heavies, they'd have been on him like stink on sh---"

Oberon's overly-loud throat-clearing noise ended Reaver's explanation of why Aaberg had hired private military contractors before it could get too obscene. "Thank you for the enlightening lecture, Agent Reaves---I think we all get the message. NOW, then, what's say we continue onwards and see what's behind this next door, shall we?" The ALPA Chairman flashed his trademark grin at the Field Agents; "I, for one, am rather curious to find out what our Norweigian antagonist has in store for us," he added. "As for you lot....."

"We're just as anxious to see what's coming as you are," V.I.C.I. stated.

Again, Oberon grinned. "Figured that. Very well, then.....allons-y!"

V.I.C.I. rolled her eyes, fighting the urge to grin as she joined the rest of the Field Agents in following the white-clad chairman into the depths of Aaberg's "fortress". Amazing how one word in French can dissipate the tension in a matter of seconds....

The group had only been walking for about five minutes when the Man in Grey gestured for them to stop. A few of the Field Agents nearly said something, but the Man's words to Oberon gave all of them a perfect reason to shut up: "We've made a mistake."

If the ALPA Chairman was perturbed, he did a good job of hiding it. "Exactly what kind of mistake are you---"

"The entire hallway is mined. This concrete was just laid last night...Aaberg is using this hall as a killing jar."

V.I.C.I. scanned the ground around her, hoping that the Man was wrong.....

"You're positive the hall's been mined?" Oberon whispered. "You're absolutely positive that---"

"He's right," V.I.C.I. stated, her monotone unusually quiet. "The floor in this hallway was laid out in a 5x5 foot grid pattern, with every alternating square containing at least three mines." Her eyes squeezed shut as she continued; "Aaberg has turned this hall into a deathtrap," she continued. "We have to make each step precise, otherwise...."

She didn't have to finish the sentence---everyone else in the group knew exactly what would happen if their feet strayed outside of the squares.

Reaver and Saturn stared down the hallway, trying not to consider what would happen if they made a single error in the next few minutes. "You're telling us that we're about to walk down a hallway with anti-tank mines under the floor?" Saturn finally asked after a few awkward seconds of silence. "And if we step off of the squares, we get turned into chunky salsa?"

"Pretty much."

"Except the mines are under concrete," Reaver countered. "Claymores usually work with tripwires---"

"And these have been rigged to go off with pressure sensors," V.I.C.I. replied. "A few of them are even built with triggering devices I couldn't identify...which means that Aaberg may have some of these floor squares rigged to go up at the touch of a button. We need to get through here quickly and carefully, otherwise the cleanup crew will be burying all of us in Ziploc bags." Her gaze turned to the back of the group; "All of you, move in Echelon Right and Echelon Left formations to go from one square to another," she ordered. "When you reach the door at the other end---"

A fast-moving grey figure moved past her. "PUBLIUS!" Oberon shouted. "GET BACK HERE NOW!"

"Whole floor's rigged," the Man in Grey muttered, "none of you are safe..." He stopped in the middle of the room, turning to stare at the rest of the Field Agents. "Get back into the room before this one," he whispered, though every Field Agent---android/gynoid and human alike---heard him clearly. "Now."

"Publius," Oberon grunted, his voice sounding halfway like a sob, "what are you doing?!"

The Man turned away, reaching up with one gloved hand to pull his mask off. "You knew I was injured from my fight at headquarters," he rasped, "but you let me join this mission anyways...out of all the people who should've seen this coming---"

"Publius, get back here now and wait for the rest of the group---"

"THE REST OF THE GROUP WILL DIE IF I MOVE FROM THIS SPOT!" the Man shouted, his injury-induced rasp adding an even uglier edge to his voice than usual. "Our time as student and mentor has long since passed, old friend....you've done more for me than you'll ever know, and I knew you never wanted me to repay that favor---at least, not like this....." He bowed his head, the mask clutched in his fist; "....but now, I have no choice but to repay you," he finished, his voice almost too soft to be heard. "Get back into the room before---"

"DAMNIT TO HELL, PUBLIUS, GET BACK HERE---"

V.I.C.I. heard the almost imperceptible beeping before anyone else did. "We need to leave," she informed the armor-clad figure of Oberon. "Now." She nearly fell to the floor as the Chairman pushed past her. "I will not leave him here to die---"

Oberon's progress was arrested by an iron grip on his shoulder. "It's not your call, sir," Vicki whispered.

Her words went unheeded. "We can get to him in less than five minutes, get him off that square---"

"The floor's going to explode underneath us in two minutes," Vicki insisted. "You can't save him---"

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she'd expected the backhand that followed her claim----not that it did anything to help dull the pain, both the all-too human stinging on her cheek and the brief feeling of someone she trusted having slapped her. "NEVER tell me what I can or cannot do," Oberon growled, his words lapsing into a moan. "We're too close..."

He nearly fell to the floor, only stopped by Vicki grabbing his arm and throwing it around her shoulder. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "but it's not your call anymore."

Before he could say anything in protest, the brunette gynoid carried Oberon back to the room they'd just left.

It took the rest of the Field Agents just a bit longer to reach the room, but Vicki held the door open for every single one of them, even as the remote detonation triggers for every mine hidden beneath the floor ticked away the seconds. Major Tom was the last one in, mostly because he couldn't stop turning back to look at Publius with an expression that blended awe and fury; as he edged through the ever-closing crack in the door, Vicki used the opportunity to get one last look at Publius---

----and for the first time since Dawley, she saw his unmasked face.

What struck her about the face of the Man in Grey wasn't his apparent youth, or the sharp contrast between that youth and the almost pure white hair that crowned his head.....it was his eyes. A veritable typhoon of emotions---guilt, rage, fear....even contentment---was held in those eyes, and in that split-second glimpse, Vicki knew why the Man in Grey---Publius---had chosen to sacrifice himself to save the rest of the Field Agents in the group.

Just as her internal log of the remote detonator timers hit 3 seconds, she saw the Man give her a nod.

A split second before she closed the door, Vicki nodded back....

.....then the blast-proof tungsten/titanium alloy door was pulled shut, locking into place.

Shortly after that, the hallway beyond the door exploded.

Every other Field Agent in the room, even the androids and gynoids, had hunkered down with their hands over their ears....but Oberon just stood, his eyes locked on the door as the hallway beyond it was utterly decimated by the anti-tank mines.

For a full three minutes, a deafening, rumbling roar sounded behind the door before finally fading.

Slowly, carefully, Vicki pulled the door open.

Predictably, every single inch of the floor----and walls, and even some bits of ceiling---had been utterly ruined by the blast. What had formerly been a neatly-organized chessboard-style layout of concrete squares was now a series of ugly gashes, scars and debris, most of it charred black. Lighting fixtures from the ceiling had either been dented by the force of the blast or simply reduced to charred skeletons of their former selves...but the strangest thing in the room was, quite honestly, what wasn't in the room.

Simply put, there was no sign of the Man in Grey---not a body, or even a piece of one.

Not even a carbon shadow.

All eyes in the room turned to stare at Oberon, wondering (perhaps even fearing) his response to this latest, most bizarre development....but as Vicki herself noticed, the ALPA Chairman seemed, for that one instant, to have been stunned into silence.
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"As much as I appreciate your cooperation in this matter, Miss Lehane, you are bending one rule too many by tapping into the security feed from Aaberg's compound...."

Alicia VI ignored Clive DuBraul's words and focused on the monitor. "No blood. Not even a single trace of guts or anything.....a guy who gets caught in the crossfire of that many Claymores doesn't just get vaporized, Clive. And those mines were buried under concrete. The only way he would've been hurt was by flying debris or by one going off right underneath him---and the square where he stood was perfectly intact." She frowned as the feed temporarily went staticky; "He planned this---or at least figured he could use this opportunity to save his friends and escape."

Something about that last word---escape---struck a chord with DuBraul. "Say that again?"

"He figured he could use this opportunity to save his friends and escape. Want it a third time, or---"

"Cedric," DuBraul called out, "Who previously owned the property Aaberg's holed up in right now?"

The VP of the ALPA, Cedric Harcourt, nearly tripped over his own foot while entering the room. "Ah, that land was formerly used by Silicon Dynamics as a secondary testing and development lab."

DuBraul chuckled. "So he did plan it...." He shook his head, smiling. "Alicia, I believe the Man in Grey may not be in as dire straits as our Agents think he is---a little sore from the beating he took earlier, but otherwise perfectly fine. That unblemished floor square is all the proof you need---hell, knowing him, it's the way he took to get out of that hall before it blew!"

The House gynoid returned the ALPA President's smile with one of her own. "Think they'll catch on?"

"As a matter of fact....I think they're realizing it just now...."
------------------------------
"....and unless this square of floor was loaded with fifteen or so Claymores," V.I.C.I. finished, "the Man in Grey could've easily waited for the other squares to explode---or, he could've just lifted this square and gone out beneath the floor---"

"UNDER THE FLOOR?!" Oberon thundered. "The bloody mines were under the floor! How could he---"

A red-and-white gloved hand closed around his shoulder. "Lift up the floor panel," Vicki suggested.

"What---"

"Just try it. It may be...enlightening."

With an incredulous, almost half-angry growl, Oberon knealt down, pried at the edges of the square---and, to his shock, found that the thing came up as easily as a piece of plywood. "Mother of earth," he muttered, "the thing barely even weighs five pounds!" He heaved the "stone" away from its spot, only to be surprised yet again---this time by a steel shaft, more than likely meant to be covered by a ventilation grid, going at least fifteen or so feet down into the ground.

"This building wasn't always owned by Björn Aaberg," Vicki murmured.

Every Field Agent present watched, stunned, as Oberon's shoulders seemed to sag, his body wracked by what had to be sobs...but in that instand, as their Chairman stood, they realized exactly what they were seeing--and hearing: Oberon was laughing.

"He did it," he guffawed, wiping a tear from his eye with his sleeve. "The bastard actually did it!"

"Did what?!" Reaver groaned. "We all heard the explosions go off---"

"Exactly." Oberon grabbed Reaver by the shoulders, grinning manically. "He wanted all those Claymores to go off around him, and for us to be in the other room, behind a blast-proof door! He knew what this place used to be---hell, took me a while to realize it myself!" He stepped away from the Field Agent, spreadding his arms and whirling on one foot; "THIS, ladies and gentlemen, was once Silicon Dynamics property!" he beamed, almost dancing over the shattered concrete. "Aaberg, being the miserable cheap sod he is, chose to just build over it---or what was left of it---instead of just leveling the land and starting from scratch!" He laughed again, even as he nearly tripped over a bit of concrete.

"So, that whole dramatic thing of him running to the center of the hall," Corona mused, "was......what, exactly?"

Oberon chuckled. "His resignation. Always did have a flair for the theatrical...."

"Wait," Jen Larssen muttered. "You're telling me he did all that just to quit?!"

Still chuckling, Oberon shook his head. "You have to understand, he was wounded earlier today---the way he was fighting a few rooms back, it's a miracle he didn't drop dead then and there. He got stiched up enough to keep going back at HQ, but it wasn't a permanent fix; those dramatic flourishes he was pulling during the last fight would've popped his stitches if he'd stuck around a few more minutes...." The laugh turned to a sigh; "At the very least, he left on his own terms," he added. "Didn't want to let anyone see him weakened..."

"So you forgave him? For Detroit, I mean...."

Vicki's question prompted another sigh from the ALPA Chairman. "He crossed a line, doing what he did to the Human Animal.....but Publius has more than made up for that today. Yes, the plonker acted like he was about to let himself get pasted across the hallway, but he saved us all from that exact fate, so....yes. He's forgiven."

That answer was enough to expunge the last traces of worry from Vicki's expression. "All I needed to hear."

"Ah, not to ruin this Kodak moment," Major Tom called out, "but didn't Aaberg just see this whole thing---AND isn't he still listening in on our little pow-wow while we're camping out here in the hall? He'll know we're down one member, and he'll know he didn't kill anyone....and why are you grinning like that at me?"

Oberon strode over to the Major, throwing an arm around his shoulder. "Major, you didn't think I volunteered for this without preparing a few...emergency plans, did you?" he inquired, gesturing to the still-functioning cameras mounted in the corners of the room. "Those cameras, in addition to being blast-proof, fireproof, waterproof AND vandalism-proof, are now currently linked into the ALPA HQ security feed, meaning the only ones who are seeing us 'camping out here in the hall' are the ones on our side. And before you bother asking me how I pulled it off, I simply installed a few extraneous bits on the outside of the building---hooked 'em into the camera systems and flicked the switches 'on'. Aaberg's completely in the dark on what's happened here."

"Then let's not give him a chance to turn the lights back on," V.I.C.I. suggested. "He may not be able to see us, but I can pretty much see him---or at least his body heat signature. Your camera trick must've cut his link to the feed when the mines went off, so the last thing he saw---"

"The last thing he thought he saw," Oberon corrected, "was Publius getting nuked...so he believes."

The brunette gynoid nodded. "So let's capitalize on the opportunity and finish this."

"Agreed---though I'm a bit curious as to why you mentioned being able to see his body heat signature---"

"He's on the move---specifically, moving towards us. And he's armed---I can't tell what he's carrying, but....actually, I might be able to." V.I.C.I. stared across the room, her gaze penetrating the wall on the other side and zooming in on the point of origin for Aaberg's heat signature. "Give me a sec...."

Reaver's attempts to conceal his impatiance failed miserably. "We don't exactly have an infinite timer here---"

From somewhere beyond the far end of the hall, something exploded.

V.I.C.I.'s eyes snapped open; "He's got a shotgun," she gasped. "He just...he shot one of the cameras with it, and I was semi-connected to the building's infranet at the time....I nearly felt it."

"Then we need to keep the potential for collateral damage light," Oberon replied quietly. "Vicki, I---"

"Won't be sending her into this fight alone," the figure in the less-bulky Vader-esque suit replied, removing the full-head helmet to reveal the face of Leah Chambers. "You called me out here to help with this mission, and since Vicki's already saved me once before, it's high time I return the favor---and don't try to talk me out of it, because---"

"Who said anything about talking you out of it?" Oberon grinned.
------------------------------
"....you can't be serious."

Alicia VI stared at the image of Björn Aaberg on the monitor, trying to process what she'd just heard from the President of the ALPA. "All this time, we've been chasing after Aaberg and the fembots, and you're just finding out something like this happened under your own roof?!"

"We only just found out about it ourselves," Harcourt admitted. "One of the fembots broke from the pack---"

"Cedric," DuBraul groaned, "that girl who climbed up the elevator shaft and broke into the server room was not one of the fembots! She had a House-issue stealth suit, more than likely stolen; she was armed with the only type of multitool that has the attachment to remove the screws on the hinges that hold up the door to the server room, and there's no way in HELL she was running this entire plan off of a binary algorithm! She might've been a gynoid, yes, but I can guarantee you that she wasn't one of Aaberg's fembots!"

Before Harcourt could protest, Alicia stepped between him and DuBrual. "Maybe this isn't as bad as either of you think....I mean, yes, the House has been having some security problems lately---which would explain the use of a stolen stealth suit---but maybe this intruder didn't take anything valuable....or did she?"

DuBraul stared at the floor, almost as if he couldn't bring himself to admit what had happened.

"Clive," Alicia muttered, all traces of her optimism gone, "what did she take?"

After five more seconds of silence, the ALPA President looked the blonde House gynoid in the eye. "We think she got to the list," he quietly replied. "Not a list, the list. The list that could very easily put everything we've ever achieved, everything we've ever hoped for, in jeopardy."

It took a full minute for Alicia to find her voice. "....can you confirm that it was the list?"

"We've got our best people working on it right now---" A sound like a half-smothered cry made DuBraul cringe, and prompted a concerned look from Alicia. "Ah, is he okay?" she asked, nodding in Harcourt's direction. "He looks like he nearly choked on something over there..." DuBraul immediately ran to the aide of the ALPA VP;; " What happened?" he whispered. "What's---" Cedric, tears streaming down his face, could only hold up his phone in reply.

"Oh, my God," DuBraul intoned. "Oh, my dear sweet mother of God....."

By the time Alicia crossed to where DuBraul and Harcourt were standing, Harcort was kneeling near a table, weeping uncontrollably. The question of "What happened?" never even left the gynoid's lips; DuBraul simply handed her the phone, allowing her to see the news for herself.

After reading and re-reading the information five times, all she could say was "No."
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[LongTimeLurker]

What? Whaaaat?

[Uhoh]

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Mother of the steepest of cliffhangers! Now all I wonder is what is on that list? Well played, very well played...

[TW]

You've 24'd us.

Just when we think everything's about to be wrapped up all nice and pretty, you throw in a sudden twist, and now we have a whole new threat looming.

Can't wait to see where you go with this!