Countdown to apocalypse, p.18
Countdown to Apocalypse, page 18
“That means, unfortunately,” He said instead, “That we have several hundred foreign and domestic threats with enhanced healing, strength, and various other enhancements… plus enhanced aggression and lowered inhibitions. That means a lot of people already inclined toward violence, with even less self control than normal. This is not a good, or tenable situation.”
“Technically, Cap,” Rosie said thoughtfully, “This isn’t a military matter.”
The others all shifted to stare at her, with varying degrees of incredulity in their expressions.
“Well, obviously,” She went on, making a correction, “The people causing this might be. Might not, if they’re a private concern. But certainly, if they belong to a foreign government, in any way, they are a military concern. I was talking about the enhanced specifically. As dangerous as they are, technically they’re a police concern… in the States at least.”
“These yahoos are a lot more dangerous than any terrorist asshole we’ve dealt with,” Sarge objected in his straightforward matter.
“Strictly speaking, terrorists aren’t a military concern either… not inside the States, at least,” Rosie said, “Even outside they wouldn’t be if international police jurisdiction wasn’t such a damn mess. The military primarily exists to deal with foreign powers, other countries primarily, terrorists are mostly just the local equivalent to rednecks in broken down trucks playing with toys they shouldn’t.”
Alex nodded thoughtfully, well acquainted with that argument. Technically, as Rosie had pointed out, it held some water. Practically, however, the real world didn’t work the way people wished it would. Concerning terrorists, police didn’t have the jurisdiction needed to pursue their targets across national borders… and they were frankly too dangerous to leave be on mere technicality.
The… superhumans they were dealing with definitely fit the second part of that equation rather neatly, in his opinion, to such a degree that Alex rather considered international jurisdiction to be worthless.
You couldn’t just let hostile people with freaking superpowers run around, entirely unchecked.
Especially not when they’re running on an amped up aggression cycle, looking for trouble, and likely experiencing a touch of megalomania.
Alex had to admit that he’d experienced more than a few moments of that last himself, and he considered himself to be a pretty stable personality who wasn’t so stupid as to actually want to deal with the bullshit of ruling the world. For people dumb enough to want that kind of power with no care for the corresponding responsibility… well, the powers they’d been gifted with would be all but irresistible.
“The National Command Authority makes that call,” Sarge said simply, “it’s over our heads.”
The others all nodded until Alex spoke softly.
“Only if we re-up.”
As one, every eye slowly shifted to focus on him, most showing the incredulity they’d earlier turned on Rosie.
Maybe that touch of megalomania runs a little deeper than I thought, Alex thought as he considered the depth of meaning in his words.
He was saved from expounding on that when an Ensign burst into the room, eyes wide, “The Dragon is back!”
*****
Chapter 16
Hong Kong, Blue Solar East Headquarters Tower
“Everyone get back from the windows!”
Wesley Trenton, CEO of Blue Solar pushed his secretary out of the office ahead of him as he risked a glance back over his shoulder at the looming monstrosity that was now dominating the Hong Kong skyline.
The coils of flame looked like something out of a disaster movie blockbuster as they twisted through the city, larger now than in either of the earlier reported incidents.
Wesley had missed the original sighting, he’d only just arrived in Hong Kong the night before and was still sleeping when the monster made its original appearance. He’d thought it was a joke, the news reports barely mentioned the incident due to the censorship, but the people weren’t nearly so tight lipped.
The second event, well everyone in the city saw that it seemed. The flying man, who practically had to be the Yank who’d been so big on the news a couple weeks earlier, fighting a massive fuck off Dragon in the middle of Hong Kong was pretty hard to miss.
After the PLA had finally quieted the situation down, Trenton had hoped that whatever it was had finally come to an end and business could return to normal in Hong Kong.
Fat chance of that, apparently.
The entire building shuddered as the mass of flame slammed into the side, shattering glass and sending shards flying in through several floors. Trenton barely managed to get his door flung shut before his office was turned into a shredder. Several shards managed to pierce the oak door, sticking out through the wood by several inches before his horrified eyes.
That was when the screams started.
*****
Major General Wey found himself horror struck, unable to move as he look upon the coils of flames that towered over the expressway heading North out of town. The convoy had radioed back about the opening moments of the ambush. When the signal went dead, he expected the worst, but honestly hadn’t quite expected it to be as bad as what he was seeing.
The Dragon was out again, and it looked even more pissed off than before.
He shook off the horror induced shock, turning on his troops who were in a similar state.
“Everyone move!” He ordered sharply, “Get to your squads, arm yourselves, be ready!”
The troops stared back, for a moment, uncomprehending almost, but the Sergeants took up the call and began forcing everyone into line. Wey nodded curtly, satisfied that his orders would be handled, and turned back to the scene.
Though he could only see the Dragon, he knew that the situation was far worse than it appeared.
On the ground, the others would be causing problems too. Their power, the strange changes those scum had undergone, was unpredictable and lethal. They made a mockery of the police response the day before, until the American had shown up, many of them apparently shrugging off bullets like so many mosquitos.
That put him in a difficult position, one that Wey recognized as potentially untenable.
The altered humans who had once been Triads here in Hong Kong were criminals with records so long he hadn’t even reading past the summaries of the first dozen. Murderers were, in some ways, the least of the group he was looking at.
The Americans got lucky, He thought grimly.
Wey had been briefed on what happened in Texas shortly after the Triads vanished in his territory, leaving only corpses and severed limbs in their place. It had been considered a bit of a longshot that something similar would happen in Hong Kong, of course, but State Intelligence had passed along the basic brief anyway.
That brief had been expanded as soon as the first sighting of the Dragon, but by then it was all but worthless.
Truthfully, it was probably worthless the moment those men vanished into the night.
The Americans had a few good men in the mix, by all accounts. Innocent bystanders, police… military, at least according to State Intelligence. Wey would have given a lot for the same luck, but while there were three missing police officers, at least two of them were suspected of being on the Triad payroll, and the third had left behind several limbs to be found so Wey doubted he would be showing up again.
No one had any idea how many, if any, innocent bystanders had been involved.
“Major General, Sir, the men are ready to move out.”
“Heavy weapons, Sergeant,” Wey ordered firmly. “the targets will not fall easily, do not give them any chance to breath. Hit them first, hit them hard, and do not stop until you are quite certain that they are dead.”
“Yes, Major General.” The Sergeant nodded firmly before turning and heading back.
Wey turned back to the city, eyes on the smoke billowing out from the wake of the dragon… and from many other sources that couldn’t all be attributed to the dragon. He sighed deeply and turned, trudging back into his command tent.
Once there he was assaulted by the multiple dozen radio requests for backup coming from police through the city.
Major General Wey was not certain how the day was going to end, but he knew without doubt that he was going to be the General who watched Hong Kong burn.
*****
“Boss, police cars coming down the road.”
Yan glanced over in the direction of the sirens, snorting.
“Stupid fools,” He muttered, “Strike them down, Kano.”
“Yes Boss.”
The Triad brother turned away, taking a few steps down the street as he brought his fists up into the air. Energy crackled in the air, building to a crescendo, and the thug suddenly brought his fists down hard and fast.
The air over the police cars shimmered, a refraction rippling the light as the air seemed to solidify and suddenly crash down into the street and crush the police cruisers in an instant. Bone, flesh, blood… and gasoline were atomized and sprayed out in all directions from the cars.
Yan had already turned away by the time the electrical systems shorted into the atomized fuel, but he was certain the explosion was spectacular.
He returned his focus to the far more interesting subject.
The Dragon was such an interesting form.
So powerful, so vulnerable.
The man’s rage fed an immense power, but it was easily misdirected… or, rather, redirected. Putting the man in front of the military and, later, police response had nicely settled the direction of his rather impressive rage.
After that, the rest was elementary as the old gag went. They fanned out and followed behind the raging dragon, taking advantage of the chaos.
He’d called in everyone for this, and it was spectacular. Truly spectacular.
Even the unchanged were useful, all the spies they had in the city, every member of the hundreds of Triads and their thousands of informants, allies, and employees were all being used for this… coming out party.
The trucks were being filled with merchandise, money, people… whatever there was of value, according to his contacts, was up for grabs. The destruction, while serving a purpose itself, was also a fantastic distraction.
The city, and everything in it, now belonged to his Triad.
*****
USS Ronald Reagan
“The whole damn city is burning.”
Hale didn’t know who had spoken and didn’t bother turning around to check. The images on the screens kept him transfixed, as they did everyone else.
“Not yet it isn’t,” He said into the murmurs, eyes hardening, “but if someone doesn’t do something soon, it will be.”
He clenched his fist shut, half turning toward the door to the conference room.
“Stand down, Major.”
“I’m retired, Captain,” Alex ground out, eyes flickering to where Matt Hallows was looking in his direction.
“POTUS is in high level talks with the Chinese Ambassador right this second, Major,” Matt said sharply, “If you go into that without the permission of the Chinese government, you could put us in a shooting war with China.”
“We risked it yesterday.”
“Yesterday we hadn’t come within thirty seconds of that shooting war, and this task force wasn’t running combat air patrols trying to keep the Chinese from blowing away an Aussie destroyer because we asked them to get involved,” Matt snapped back, “The situation is degraded, Major.”
“Stop calling me that,” Alex ground out through clenched teeth. “I am not in the chain of command, I am retired. Don’t think I don’t see what you’re trying to do, I’m out, Captain. I’m staying out.”
“Calm down, Ma… Hale,” Matt sighed, “We’re not trying to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“No, you’re just trying to keep me from doing something I do want to do,” Alex turned away, back to the scene on the monitors.
“You want to save lives, that’s a great motivation, Major,” Matt said, holding up his hand to cut off the protest from Alex, “And I know you’re retired, but you were still a Marine and you’re a guest on my ship. I call you whatever I damn well please, and I don’t please to be calling you Mister.”
The Captain let out a long breath, “Now I know you want to save lives, and I sympathize, but if you go now you might save thousands… but cost the lives of millions. So, I say it again, Major… Stand down.”
Alex growled, but forced himself to keep his cool. Now that he was aware of it, Alex found that he couldn’t keep from noticing the fact that he really was on edge more than he should be. He’d gone through three wars and not lost his temper, and now he was about to take a Navy Captain’s head off for calling him major.
I need to get a grip, damn it.
“I’ll go in sanitized again, if the Chinese balk just disavow me,” He said.
“Boss,” Tee spoke up, attracting his attention, “this is going to need more than even you can bring. That’s not a small situation brewing there.”
“The squid has a point, Cap,” Sarge grunted, “What we’re seeing on those screens is a small army marching through a city, with an entire PLA division about to engage. If you get your ass involved in that, it could real bad in a heartbeat.”
“It’s already real bad in there, Sarge,” Alex countered.
“And it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” the Sarge responded, “Nothing you can do is going to change that.”
“What we need to work out,” Lana said softly, “is how we can minimize just how bad this can go.”
“How bad can it get?” Verte asked wryly.
“A Nuclear exchange comes to mind,” Captain Hallows snapped. “We just moved to DEFCON 3 before I came in. The Air Force is already winding up the long-range bombers, waiting for the order to get in the air.”
*****
White House, Washington DC
“Mr President,” The Chinese Ambassador said lightly as he could, despite the oppressive tension he could feel in the room. “I understand the position of your nation, however there are deep concerns in Beijing over the sources of these… powers.”
“I’ve already covered this, Mr Ambassador…”
The Chinese man held up his hand, sighing, “I understand that, but you have to admit that there are rather few people on the planet capable of even dreaming about such things, and of those… the United States of America top the list.”
The President rose from the seat, turning and walking over to the windows where the lights of DC were now in full illumination.
“Then we find ourselves at an impasse,” The President said heavily, “and, frankly, this is not something we can be at an impasse on. Are you aware of what is going on, around the world, right at this moment?”
The Chinese Ambassador nodded slowly, he’d been briefed before coming in.
“Your government has moved to what you call DEFCON 3, I believe?” He asked, getting a nod in return. “My own is currently fueling our long-range missiles as we speak.”
“Of course.” The President said, still looking out over the city. “Two steps from Armageddon, Mister Ambassador. Just two more steps to go.”
“The answer is simple, Mr President. Withdraw your presence from the South China Sea, ask the Australians to do the same,” The Ambassador said simply, “Those are our sovereign waters, Mr President.”
“Debatable, but even if we did that it wouldn’t cover the true crux of the situation, would it now?” The President asked softly. “The issue isn’t the ships in the South China Sea, we both know that. The issue is a biological attack on both of our nations.”
“One that could not be accomplished without certain… extreme resources,” The Ambassador responded. “Resources of a Nation State, most would say… and not just any nation state.”
“Indeed,” The President acceded, laughing softly despite the gravity of the situation. “A few weeks ago, I would have said that what we’ve seen in our two nations would be impossible, of course. Since then, the list of who might possibly accomplish such a thing has become something of an obsession in this house, as you might imagine.”
The Ambassador gestured idly but didn’t say anything in response as he let the President go on.
“We’ve gone deep into every possible source for this sort of research,” The President said, walking back over to the desk. He pulled out a stack of files and starting to toss them across the desk one by one. “Japan, they have some good research into genetics of course, but nothing remotely like this. England, almost nothing beyond some basic disease treatments. Germany, they focus more on physical avenues of research…”
He paused, withdrawing another file and examining to before tossing it over.
“And China.”
The Ambassador’s eyes widened, locking on the file but he didn’t reach out for it.
“Honestly I was surprised by how far your nation had gotten into CRISPR related research,” The President admitted, a slyly amused smile crossing his expression, “remarkably, it echoes the work done in Japan, England, Germany… and our own, of course. My compliments to State Intelligence.”
The Ambassador reached out, eyes on the folder as he opened it with a distasteful look on his face. He scanned the brief and sighed, “I would say the same concerning your own Central Intelligence Agency… assuming, of course, this is accurate.”
The President smiled thinly, “I will pass along your regards. Suffice to say, however, there is not one single nation on this planet capable of doing what has been done. I know, I’ve looked.”
“And yet someone has.”
“Exactly, which means we have a common enemy,” The President said firmly, “and that means that it is in our best interests to deal with this foe as quickly as possible, before he can get up to any more… mischief.”
“And what might you be suggesting we do to deal with this foe?”
The President sighed, knowing what was being asked without having to have it spelled out.
