Apparition the glitch bo.., p.1
Apparition (The Glitch Book 3), page 1
Contents
Title page
Copyright
Disclaimer
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Thank you
APPARITION
The Glitch Book 3
by
Phil Maxey
Copyright © 2020 by Philip Maxey
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
First Printing, 2020.
https://www.philmaxeyauthor.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is purely coincidental.
CHAPTER ONE
Mike Richter looked at the glow on the horizon. The RV he had been driving throughout the night was almost at Albuquerque. He looked to his right. Elias was asleep, as it seemed was everyone else from the lack of noise behind him. The small towns they had driven through were enveloped in darkness. He had expected to see people with blue sparkling eyes peering back at him from behind the homestead windows, but there were none, It was like driving through the underworld. At least the city ahead had light. Had the people in the towns upped and left? They were only a few hundred miles from the epicenter of the explosion. Maybe that was it.
Despite being surrounded by others he felt alone. He remembered the feeling from a few days after Clara’s death. While standing on the porch of their marital home, he realized the house behind him was devoid of life, and he had never felt more adrift than in that moment. As the city’s lights sparkled ten miles off that feeling was making a return. This time though he could save the woman he loved… if he just knew where Dyer had taken her. He shook his head. Not just from the tiredness that was weighing on his eyelids, but because he blamed himself for what had happened. He didn’t need to be a profiler to know something was off about the man with the salesman grin and eyes that spoke of something else. But he didn’t trust his gut and now Alexis was paying for it.
His mind switched to Daryl. They had kept in touch for about fifty minutes with the police radios before the signal gave out. The large group in the buses had kept driving north and when static replaced his former partner’s voice, they had not found any break in the wall which seemed to divide the state. Daryl said the situation didn’t add up, and he was inclined to agree. His glanced again at the lights in the distance.
The Albuquerque FBI station has got to help find one of their own, despite everything descending into—
The cabin filled with a burst of light so bright Mike couldn’t see out of the windscreen. He struggled with the wheel as a rasping sound came from the man in the passenger’s seat. Mike instinctively pushed down on the breaks and flicked his head to Elias, whose eyes were as bright as a star. Light flooded from the old man’s face as he convulsed, his arms flailing.
A cacophony of voices and the barking filled the RV as it skidded to a stop at the side of the highway, but Mike didn’t hear any of it, his attention solely belonging to what was happening to the former ranger.
“What the fuck is happening!” shouted Gabe from somewhere behind, the man that appeared to be Joan’s bodyguard.
A high pitch whine emanated from Elias, making them all grab their ears, a sound which was joined by the radio switching on, the speakers booming static into the night as all the lights inside and outside the vehicle flicked on and off.
And then it stopped.
Mike was surrounded by darkness, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. Before anyone could talk, Brillo barked making him and everyone else jump. He went to speak, to ask if all were okay, when the engine fired up and the lights returned to the interior. He hadn’t realized but he was looking directly at Elias, whose eyes had returned to normal and were looking, not back at him, but forward.
Mike followed his gaze to the frost covered concrete lit by the headlights, then back to him. “Are you okay?”
Elias slowly peeled his eyes away from what he was seeing, to the man next to him, his mouth opened. “He’s… back.”
For a fraction of a second Mike thought to ask ‘who?’ but then knew who was back. “Travis?” He looked back to the empty piece of road just a few yards from the front fender.
Elias nodded. “Yeah… but he don’t look too well…”
“Who’s back?” said Joan.
Noah stayed silent and petted Brillo.
“It’s a long story,” said Mike. He looked back to Elias. “What do you mean he doesn’t look well?”
Elias pushed his door open and jumped down onto the road, then walked forward to what only he could see. Travis was in the same clothes he had left the cult’s compound in, but they were torn and covered in dirt and grime. But that wasn’t what shocked Elias, for the young man’s face was gaunt and pale. “I thought you were… err…”
Travis forced a smile. “Dead?”
“Yeah.”
“Almost… but as you can see, not quite.” Travis’s eyes looked to Mike, who was now standing on the other side of the RV. His father’s eyes were wide in anticipation. Travis looked back to Elias. “Tell him Dyer is… controlled by the AI, but he’s a true believer, so the AI—”
Elias held his hand up. “Slow down.” He then repeated Travis’s words to Mike, then waved the young man to continue.
“The AI has given some humans autonomy to do its bidding. Dyer is one of them.”
Mike looked at Elias then back to the space where he imagined his son was standing. “Do you know where he took Dyer?”
There was a pause before Elias spoke. “He says he doesn’t, but he can guess… Probably west, to a major population center.”
Mike felt a flash of hope move through him. “Good, then we can use the resources in—”
“What?” said Elias to the empty space in front of them. He then looked to the lights on the horizon. “Nah… can’t be.” Elias crunched his face. “Really? Dang…” He looked at Mike. “I don’t believe it, but he says Albuquerque is no longer a human city…”
*****
Two hundred and sixty miles to the north of Mike and the others, Dr. Denise Reed stood in a cavernous room in the bowels of the Cheyenne mountain complex. She leaned heavily on the rail of the gantry that overlooked rows of computer monitors, all which faced the larger screens on the cave wall at the front. Two digital maps of the United States were overlaid with neon lines and dots, some of which were flashing. The scene in front of her was a blur or frantic discussions, most of which she was too tired to properly take in.
“The Joint Chiefs will see you now doctor.”
Denise turned and nodded at the young female officer, then followed her through a series of indistinct corridors, up a flight of stairs and to a door. The officer knocked once then opened it, but remained outside, gesturing for the doctor to go in. This would be her first time meeting with the men and women who commanded the nation’s response to the AI, and answered only to the secretaries of defense and the president himself. The large conference room had its own share of desks and monitors on its periphery, but the long table at its heart had five men and one woman, which she recognized as the chiefs of the four armed forces and the commander-in-chief of Norad itself.
“Take a seat doctor,” said general Buck Corolla in a gruff voice. He was seated at the head of the table. Denise had seen a photo of the man in charge of operations within the complex, hanging on a wall in the office she had worked out of for the past few days. He looked even more like a bulldog in real life. She sat at the opposite end to where he was. “So, what progress have you made?” he said.
Denise’s mind raced across the charts and data she had been pouring over since she had arrived. Reports which had been collated within the firewalled database within the mountain, and which she was put in charge of making sense of. Unfortunately she was no closer to giving the smartly dressed man with the Marine haircut any clearer answers. “Umm…”
“You have made some progress, yes?” said a woman in a naval uniform, with insignia indicating her status as an admiral.
Denise forced a smile. “Yes Admiral. Working with Dr. Meyer and the rest of my team, we have blueprints—”
“Blueprints?” The words almost spat from Corolla’s throat. “Ideas on a computer screen aren’t going to stop this thing from its march across the continental United States doctor!”
“Maybe we should see what else she has to say?” said the youngest of the bunch, USAF general Cary Bell. The others nodd
“We have developed a series of weapons which will send out pulses of electromagnetic energy, which should neutralize anyone affected by the nanites. They disrupt the AI’s circuitry.”
“But you haven’t tested any prototypes?” said the admiral.
“We are constructing them now, I’ve only just been put in charge—”
“And what about the mentally challenged adults you have?” said Corolla. “I understand they are kicking up a storm in their living quarters in the floors below us?”
“Medical science barely understood the individuals with autism before our recent situation with the AI, general. We still don’t understand why they are not affected by the AI’s attempt to control them. Perhaps their minds are too chaotic, or perhaps their neurology is too advanced for it to get a grip on, but we need them to be comfortable in their surroundings for us to learn more. Despite their issues general, they’re not stupid, they know they are being help captive and they know why.”
Corolla went to speak but Carry beat him to it. “What would help?” Corolla frowned but waited for the answer anyway.
“Everything they used to have in their lives to put them at ease, their coping mechanisms, have gone. It will take time but—”
“Time?” said Corolla. “That S.O.B is already taking control of most of our conventional weapons across the country. Are you’re aware, we already had to use tactical low yield nukes to take out most of our tanks and ground to ground missile installations otherwise it would already be over for us!”
“That was probably the AI’s plan…”
“Plan?”
“Just the threat of it being able to take control of our conventional weapons would mean you would have to destroy them, meaning it wins either way.” Some of those in the room shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
“Yeah, well its plan worked. The only thing we do have on our side is good old fashioned boots on the ground, but now I hear there are walls appearing across huge swathes of land in the states surrounding the detonation site in New Mexico, and we can’t use our modern aircraft to get over them.”
“We’re currently pulling out as much Vietnam and 80s era tech that we have mothballed as we can find,” said Cary.
Collora continued. “Time is something we don’t have. Get answers out of the autisms, and get those new weapons built so we can start to deploy them!”
“What about operation Halstead?” she said.
Collora looked surprised. “What do you know about that?”
“I’ve heard it mentioned a few times. It’s some kind of executive order from—”
“You don’t have clearance to know what it is doctor. Just concentrate on your job.”
She nodded. “Yes, sir… umm…”
“Yes?”
“I would like permission to use our analogue network to try and find agent—”
Corolla’s eyes grew large. “You want to talk to the man whose son started this shit show? No doctor you cannot. Permission denied. Now please leave us, we have a country to try and save.”
Denise got up and left.
CHAPTER TWO
Alexis walked in a forest full of trees that contained stars. Globes of blue-white energy that fizzed and pulsed amongst the branches, while smaller sparks buzzed like fireflies around her. She smiled and laughed at the spectacle then stopped near a particularly enticing kinetic ball of power, her eyes drawn to the comfort of what lay within…
Her eyes sprung open and instantly the comfort of her dream was replaced with the terror of her current situation. The darkness around her was only broken by pools of light, which were a blur due to her not being able to focus properly, and the dry cold air contained an odor which stung her nose, making her cough. She tried to stifle the sound as it echoed slightly but her lungs were not cooperating.
She swallowed. Her throat felt as it was full of grit, and she moved her hands to the cool flat dusty floor, being surprised they could more independent of each other and pushed herself up, it was then the scene in front of her sharpened and she almost screamed in fear.
For most of the journey with the pyscho, she had just had glimpses of where they were going. As they moved from desert to town, she was conscious but pretended not to be, and glanced at the single story buildings she vaguely recognized. Dyer had driven them into the abandoned town of Sulerosa. Her heart had sank. All the progress she had made to escape, and she was back to square one. Questions pushed their way into her mind and it was all she could do to not let on that she was no longer unconscious. Distant memories of a class or two she had taken on national emergencies back at her days at the academy told her she was probably too far away from the nuclear detonation for radiation to be a major issue… at least not for another decade. As the bus wound through streets bordered by broken buildings and mounds of rubble, her concern was how to escape, failing that how to survive being the hostage of the AI, or whatever Dyer believed he was.
He wasn’t like the other AI controlled zombies she had come across. He believed he was actually human still. Maybe he was. Maybe the AI was allowing him to be his crazy self because it suited the AI’s needs and maybe she could use that to her advantage. She could fool a human, a god-like AI, not so much.
Alexis was in a large room, and would have been lost within an absolute darkness if it wasn’t for the light being given off by patches of the mercury like substance which clung to the walls, ceiling and floor around her. She suddenly realized she had no idea of the area just behind her and swung her head around and pulled back all in one movement on seeing what her fingers were just inches away from…
It’s the AI… It’s everywhere… I’m surrounded…
She went to get to her feet then stopped. How had she not been infected? In the dull blue-white light she frantically scanned her hands, arms, then felt her face, not being sure what to look or feel for. She was covered in dirt and grime, but nothing—
Are my thoughts… my own? How can I know… I’m…
She shook her head.
“Get a grip Alexis,” she whispered. Her training as a psychologist started to kick in and she purposely calmed herself while she tried to ascertain in what kind of building she was in. Beneath the metallic silvery liquid which looked like it had been flung around the room were desks, filing cabinets, chairs. She was in an office, with blinds lowered over the windows.
She wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed to try and find some warmth, but shivered regardless. She was no longer wearing the jacket she left Roswell in, now only having a thin shirt to rely upon to stop from freezing. The thought of Dyer touching her to remove an item of clothing chilled her even more than the near zero temperature. Finding more clothes was a priority, up there with escaping. She looked to her left were the door was. It was covered in the silver nanites, making it one of the brightest parts of the room. She wondered if they had positioned themselves there to deter her from leaving. Either way it wasn’t going to stop her from attempting to do so.
She stood in a rush then regretted it as she wavered on the spot waiting for the blood to return to where it needed too. As she did, she listened into the world around her and heard nothing. It was as if her ears were blocked, but yet she wasn’t even hearing the sound of silence. Stepping around a patch of silver she moved between two desks and stood near one of the blinds and looked through an inch wide gap to the outside. The nanites were there too, glows which covered the sidewalks, pylons, broken vehicles and ruined buildings. She sighed, then looked back at the door. She was acutely aware that the alien-looking substance which covered it was also sentient. It was probably watching her right now as she—
A noise came from beyond the door in one of the other rooms. Dyer? She wasn’t waiting to find out. She turned to the window, luckily the blind was free of the AI, and slowly raised it watching for any movement from the stuff around her. She expected all the silvery liquid to suddenly lunge at her, but it remained motionless. Pulling the latch back, she pushed the window frame outwards and a blast of cold air moved in the opposite direction making her shiver even more. She was on the ground floor which was a relief. Checking there was no silver on the frame or below on the dusty concrete, she climbed out as quickly as she could and dropped down, instinctively crouching below the window and pushed her senses into the shadows to see or hear any danger.
