"Well... that escalated quickly..."
With a chuckle Norman closed the door to the computer lab as Jason dragged the limp body of Joshua in, laying him next to David Hua's corpse. Jason muttered something as he stood up, stretching to ease a pain in his back. He lit a cigarette and looked around, quietly making a quick count.
"Campbell... Gonzales and Henson... Tsang... Black... Kozak and Takagawa... David and Joshua. Klinger imploded. That's all of them."
He walked over to Jude, checking his breathing and covered him up with a jacket, then pulled some gloves on. Not that it mattered, the place would go up in a blaze soon enough.
Nancy walked into the room, touching Jason on the shoulder.
"It's ok, I'll sit with him and keep an eye on him, you do what needs to be done."
Jason nodded and got up, walking over to the broken black obelisk, stuffing it into one of the bags he had retrieved from the van, making sure to include any leads that had been hooked up to it before David broke the damn thing.
"So... wanna talk me through it, pal?"
Jason turned and looked at Norman.
"Not sure I can quite explain... fully."
He walked into Campbell's office, followed by his former Team Leader.
"We got a call. No... first we all were screaming. I vaguely remember a flash of me on the phone calling something in to A-Cell. Then I was laying flat on the ground under the hatch to my attic. It felt like a flash back. But I didn't remember doing it. It's hard to explain... Then we got the call, we had to come to Chicago. Met up with Agent Eve and David, a Friendly. Joshua and Jude had also had a similar experience, screaming like madmen, at the same time I did. Eve was vague about it, but said there had been a report of kind of unnatural incursion. This team of scientists at the Olympian Holobeam Array had fired a laser into space. We had to recover any technology and stop the incursion from happening."
Jason rifled through the papers in Black's desk, pulling everything that even remotely looked occult out of the sheaves of paper and put it in a separate bag. From a drawer in Campbell's desk he took a large envelope.
"We were given DoE covers, sent here on an inspection. Security was very high, and Campbell did not want us to roam around. Which was exactly what I wanted to do. We started acting up, spouting the usual bureaucratic bullshit to get on her nerves. Anyway, we found a heap of weird behavior from everyone who worked here, one of their team was in some kind of catatonia, and noone in here seemed to be fazed by that. Which lead us to believe they were either lying, hypnotized or under some kind of outer influence. In the end Jude and I overpowered the guards and rounded everyone up in the waiting area, tied down. Everyone apart from Klenger that is... She... flashed... into existence, looking mad, with blind eyes. Joshua was able to reason with her for a bit, but most of what she said was gibberish, didn't make sense. Talking about massive black chaos, that lives outside of space and time. That there was music out there. That she had seen the throne of God. At least not at that stage. I told Joshua to zip-tie her. It got to a fight between her and him, and in the end she killed Joshua. Jude took over and got severely wounded and she disappeared. I told Jude to keep an eye on the others and sent David to look into the computer as to what was going on. Apparently he disconnected it and eventually David and I were able to kill her outside, after which she imploded and... everything went black."
He stood for a few moment, gathering his thoughts.
"And then I was back in Campbell's office. Screaming. This is the bit where it gets very strange."
Jason sat against the corner of the desk and put the butt of his cigarette into a little container of a film roll, lighting up another one straight away. He inhaled deeply and thought for a second.
"I know it doesn't make sense. Let's just say we all were stuck in a time loop and we just couldn't figure out what was going on or how to stop it. Joshua was back alive, and we were able to do things differently, but it went really pear-shaped quickly with Campbell calling in security and it escalated into a firefight. Look, I'm not going to go over every detail, or it will make me go insane. It suffices to say that from what Helen said at the end of the second re-run, the incursion became stronger because of us. The ones observing the whole thing. That's why she killed Joshua the previous time. She was trying to kill everyone, so they'd stop observing... and in that way stop the incursion from happening. When I realized that, we were already in the third... I don't know what you call it... iteration? I told Joshua and Jude we had to kill everyone, and went outside. Joshua had done his best. He had used his skills to try and break through whatever barrier had been erected around these people, he had been able to reason with Klinger for a while, and I think he even broke through Karen Henson. But there just wasn't enough time to keep trying over and over."
Jason dragged the bag back into the computer lab, and started going through the pockets of the corpses, pulling out their wallets from which he removed all the money, stuffing it into the envelope.
"I didn't want them to have to pull any triggers, Joshua was too new to this and Jude... He had broken when Joshua died, before. So I shot Campbell and Tsang before they realized what went on. Black and Kozak ran and I chased them. I think Jude killed the guards inside as well as Takagama. I don't know where Joshua was at the time. David had destroyed the black obelisk he had found in the server cabinet. That was the thing that seemed to have made contact with this... entity. Helen called it a god. Remember last time, in the cabin? I asked you if Dostoyevski ever considered that some malevolent being might actually be looking down upon us from between the stars, when he wrote his rubbish? I think this is it. Something is up there, looking down at us. They activated this laserbeam and made contact. We looked up... and it stared right back."
He rubbed his eyes.
"Every time I shot one of them, I could feel this kind of pressure being taken off me. When we were all together outside before, there was this noise. This humming. Flutes. I don't know. But there was something there and it was connected to that thing trying to come across into our reality. And it lessened as I shot them."
He checked his watch and nodded at Jude.
"That being said, if I feel this droning again around 10pm, I'm putting a round in his brain and mine."
 |
| "Norman" |
Jason picked up a jerrycan and poured petrol over the bodies of the scientists and guards, then walked over to Nancy and Jude. She gave him a nod.
"He's still alive. He needs a doctor though..."
Jason nodded, thinking. Then he looked at the bodies of David Hua and John Sinclair. Joshua...
"You know, Norman, I was going to have a chat to him after this. Prepping him as my replacement, to lead J-cell. I gave Jude the sign to shoot him because I worried he would try to take us out before we finished with the clean-up. He was clever. Very clever. Perhaps even a genius. But he didn't have the experience yet how to do a clean-up like this. We didn't hit it off properly. He... had this way of talking on and on. And you just phased out after a while. I wanted to tell him that he needed to work on that. That Jude and Jasper wouldn't respond to that, he needed to find that level at which he could engage them into thinking before they act. I'm sure he would have understood what I mean. Could have been a great guy to lead a cell. Just needed some time..."
"Yeah well, we'll never know, will we, Jase? One thing's for sure, his Astral Walking didn't save him. Now get back to the job!"
Jason stood there for a moment, taking a deep breath and chewing his lip. He got down on his knees and started to undress David and Sinclair's bodies.
"What are you doing, Jason?", Nancy asked, alarmed. Norman told her to be quiet. "Jason knows what needs to be done. Leave him to it. Keep an eye on the lunatic."
Jason inspected the bodies, looking for tattoos or distinguishing marks, but found none. He walked to the toolkit and pulled some pliers and a hammer out of it, as well as a pair of bolt cutters.
He handed a large plastic zip-lock bag to Norman.
"Can you hold this for me?"
"Sure thing, pal..."
Tuesday, July 2nd 1996, 9:40pm
He had made one last round of the premises. The security areas were ready to go, all of the tapes with footage of the last 48 hours scratched, broken, and tossed on a pile doused in petrol and ready to go up in flames. The main building was covered in it as well, petrol cans spread out all over the computer lab to make sure it would burn as fiercely as possible. Jude was laying on the backseat, under a blanket. The van was inside the workshop and all the DoE and security guns were in the boot of the car, together with the pieces of the broken Obelisk, their DoE badges and a bag full of fingertips and teeth.
Norman looked through the windscreen at the backseat.
"I think you need to take him out, pal. He snapped under pressure. Twice. He tried to kill you in the corridor and would have killed you outside. He's a risk you can't take. He's gone. There's no way for him to get back from this. He's seen and done things no-one can know about, so you'd do the Group a favour by plugging him."
"I know, Norman. But I need to talk to him first."
Nancy walked up to them as Jason took out a pen and wrote in big capital letter FOR HANNAH on the envelope. Nancy gave him a wry smile when she saw it. He tossed it in the boot on top of the other things.
"Sorry Nance, it's been a while since the last one. Things are different at work nowadays..."
He pulled a flask out of his pocket and took a decent swig, passing it to Norman.
"To another Opera successfully concluded..."
"That's right, pal. And in the end, that's the only thing that matters..."
Tuesday, July 2nd 1996, 9:45pm
As he pulled out of the driveway, he could see the flames roar behind him. Within a few seconds, the buildings were out of sight but it didn't take long before he heard a massive explosion and saw the sky lit up in his rear-view mirror.
Jude moaned as Jason hit a pothole.
"Nothing I can do about it, Jude. We're getting out of here..."
From the back, he could hear Jude repeat something, over and over. "Doctor"
"I know... we're going home."
"He's still alive. He needs a doctor though..."
Jason nodded, thinking. Then he looked at the bodies of David Hua and John Sinclair. Joshua...
"You know, Norman, I was going to have a chat to him after this. Prepping him as my replacement, to lead J-cell. I gave Jude the sign to shoot him because I worried he would try to take us out before we finished with the clean-up. He was clever. Very clever. Perhaps even a genius. But he didn't have the experience yet how to do a clean-up like this. We didn't hit it off properly. He... had this way of talking on and on. And you just phased out after a while. I wanted to tell him that he needed to work on that. That Jude and Jasper wouldn't respond to that, he needed to find that level at which he could engage them into thinking before they act. I'm sure he would have understood what I mean. Could have been a great guy to lead a cell. Just needed some time..."
"Yeah well, we'll never know, will we, Jase? One thing's for sure, his Astral Walking didn't save him. Now get back to the job!"
Jason stood there for a moment, taking a deep breath and chewing his lip. He got down on his knees and started to undress David and Sinclair's bodies.
 |
| "Nancy" |
"What are you doing, Jason?", Nancy asked, alarmed. Norman told her to be quiet. "Jason knows what needs to be done. Leave him to it. Keep an eye on the lunatic."
Jason inspected the bodies, looking for tattoos or distinguishing marks, but found none. He walked to the toolkit and pulled some pliers and a hammer out of it, as well as a pair of bolt cutters.
He handed a large plastic zip-lock bag to Norman.
"Can you hold this for me?"
"Sure thing, pal..."
Tuesday, July 2nd 1996, 9:40pm
He had made one last round of the premises. The security areas were ready to go, all of the tapes with footage of the last 48 hours scratched, broken, and tossed on a pile doused in petrol and ready to go up in flames. The main building was covered in it as well, petrol cans spread out all over the computer lab to make sure it would burn as fiercely as possible. Jude was laying on the backseat, under a blanket. The van was inside the workshop and all the DoE and security guns were in the boot of the car, together with the pieces of the broken Obelisk, their DoE badges and a bag full of fingertips and teeth.
Norman looked through the windscreen at the backseat.
"I think you need to take him out, pal. He snapped under pressure. Twice. He tried to kill you in the corridor and would have killed you outside. He's a risk you can't take. He's gone. There's no way for him to get back from this. He's seen and done things no-one can know about, so you'd do the Group a favour by plugging him."
"I know, Norman. But I need to talk to him first."
Nancy walked up to them as Jason took out a pen and wrote in big capital letter FOR HANNAH on the envelope. Nancy gave him a wry smile when she saw it. He tossed it in the boot on top of the other things.
"Sorry Nance, it's been a while since the last one. Things are different at work nowadays..."
He pulled a flask out of his pocket and took a decent swig, passing it to Norman.
"To another Opera successfully concluded..."
"That's right, pal. And in the end, that's the only thing that matters..."
Tuesday, July 2nd 1996, 9:45pm
As he pulled out of the driveway, he could see the flames roar behind him. Within a few seconds, the buildings were out of sight but it didn't take long before he heard a massive explosion and saw the sky lit up in his rear-view mirror.
Jude moaned as Jason hit a pothole.
"Nothing I can do about it, Jude. We're getting out of here..."
From the back, he could hear Jude repeat something, over and over. "Doctor"
"I know... we're going home."
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