Disk 7
I'LL BE IN ARIZONA FOR CHRISTMAS
- What do you mean, empty? – voiced Spencer over the telephone as he heard the report of the Mustang that was intercepted. He slammed the telephone and spoke over the intercom. – Get me the NSA field office. – he said sitting on his chair waiting for the call to connect.
- NY field office. – answered the intercom.
- I need to request an interception from you.
- What's the justification for this?
- Biological hazard. – responded Spencer.
- Under what authority? – responded the man over the intercom.
- Do as I say. I am under level 6 command.
- Understood. Send me the request then. – sighed the person on the other side.
Hours later Spencer was at the uplink room waiting. One of the other field agents came in.
- What is this about? - he asked.
- I am going to receive the information about the fugitives. Addresses, names, credit cards, habits, friends. Everything.
- Can you really do that? – asked the field agent.
- Of course. Everything is in computers out there now.
- Without a warrant? – asked the other agent.
- You are a newbie, right? – answered Spencer as the telecom screen came up.
- We have identified the van with its license plate and we have the credit card information of the people involved. Last transaction in a gas station outbound interstate 95 south.
- Good. They won't go far. That gas tank won't last for 100 miles at least.
Few hours later the police and special agents were lined up at a gas station 100 miles south. Mandy's utility van pulled over and at that moment a swarm of agents came in and opened the door. An old man was at the wheel.
- Howdy? – the man said completely puzzled.
Spencer received the report.
- It was a homeless man we intercepted in the highway.
- Damn! – yelled Spencer. – Where the hell are they? Have you checked their credit cards?
- We tried. It fed transactions in New Jersey, then a few minutes later in Istanbul, then Rome, then Tokyo.
- Forget it. – said Spencer. - Try the surveillance cameras at the last closest point.
- Uploading it now.
When they clicked on the file, there was a video of Santa Claus dancing the Macarena.
- What the f…?….
Meanwhile, Tom reclined his seat of the comfortable first class area of a luxury airliner.
- Do you think we are safe? – asked Mandy who was sitting beside him.
- Relax. I am sure Rex was able to shake them off our trail.
- I feel nervous….. – muttered Tom's mom. – Who's going to pay for all this?.
- Relax Mom. Rex was able to issue the electronic tickets for free after he made friends with the airline central computer program.
Few hours later the PA intercom of the plane came on.
"We are starting our descent to the city of Tucson Arizona. At this time we request our passengers to return their seats to the upright position for landing. Thank you for flying with us"
Spencer sat down calmly thinking about what to do next.
- Come with me. – he said stepping out of the uplink office.
- Where are we going?
- To the biological containment area.
They stepped into the elevator. Spencer swiped his id card and punched in the access code. The elevator went to the high security levels. Through the glass wall of the elevator it could be seen down below hundreds of pods aligned one next to the other with wires and cables hanging on the ceiling of each. It looked like a bee hive.
- I have never seen this place…. – said the other agent.
- You ain't seen nothing yet. – said Spencer as the elevator door hissed open.
They approached one of the marines in the area. Spencer signed in the release request.
- Ok. – said the marine escorting the two agents inside the maze like structure.
There were in front of one of the pods.
- Ok. Here's one of them. The others are that way? If I may ask sir….- asked the marine. – Why do you go for the puny ones?
- We have not been able to control the others properly. It would be dangerous. This will have to do.
- Understood sir. – said the marine punching the security code of the pod.
Inside a 4 ft creature stood on his hind legs. He had reptilian scaly skin and muscular limbs with sharp claws. His eyes glittered in the darkness of the confined space. He had a bracelet surrounding his neck and his forehead had a birthmark in the shape of a V.
- This will do. – murmured Spencer with satisfaction.
Meanwhile at Tucson, David was able to rent the car.
- David …Santos? - asked the rental car reception guy reading from the computer.
- Si amigo. – said David with a smile in his face.
- Whatever…..Here's the keys. Happy Holidays.
- Bon natale…. – said David as he was being pulled by Tom. – Come on dad…
They drove down the countryside. They could only see dessert on one side and the other.
- It should be around here….. – said Mandy looking around for the mailbox with the number.
- There. – said Tom pointing at the trailer that could be seen from afar.
- Ok. Let's go. – said Mandy pulling into the dirt road.
Tom stepped out of the car and went to the trailer front door. He knocked several times. A person opened the door slightly keeping the chair to the door.
- Who is it? – said the irritated voice inside.
- Fred Collins? My name is Tom and I
- He doesn't live here anymore. – said the person inside shutting the door completely.
- Please sir I… - muttered Tom.
- Scram or I'll call the cops!
- Robert Brice sent us here. – yelled Mandy from behind.
Then, gently, the keychain slid and the door opened.
- Please come in. – said the man who was wearing a straw hat and sandals.
They introduced each other but they talked about business quickly. Tom's mom and dad went to sleep. They were exhausted while Tom and Mandy stayed and talked to Fred.
- Jesus Christ! - said Fred as he studied Rex from all angles. – Robert finally completed it.
- The pre recorded message was activated when I was playing around with this thing. – said Tom showing Fred the projectile.
- Let me see that. – said Fred taking it in his hand. He studied the object for a few minutes. – That son of a gun….So this is how you are keeping them immobile…. – muttered Fred between the teeth.
- What do you mean? – asked Tom.
- Don't you know what this is? – asked Fred pointing at the object. – This is an electromagnetic pulse generator.
Mandy and Tom shrugged their shoulders.
- This projectile emits a pulse that can make electronic equipment stop functioning.
- Does this have to do with the project digital spear? – asked Mandy.
- I don't know the whole 9 yards. I used to work with Robert when RX…..I mean, Rex was just a blueprint. I know that our people had come in contact with these other creatures known as digimon but the last thing I knew about this before I was terminated from my employment is that there were discussions of how to make these creatures work for us. It seems the strategy didn't involve diplomacy after all….. – said Fred looking at the projectile.
- That explains this weird creature in the building telling Rex about "helping them" – deducted Tom
- I don't get it. This creature attacked him first….- retorted Mandy.
- Brice said Rex was the key to get inside the base. What is he talking about?
- The main experimentation site involving the portal was the military base a few miles away from here. I never got the clearance to see what was going on so I have no idea how big is the project or the details of it. With Rex here, it changes the game. – said Collins inviting Rex to the front of his desktop.
Fred went to the closet of his trailer where he had hundreds of notebooks. He took one of them and went over to Rex.
- Connect to this IP address and try to display its content.
Rex touched the CPU of Fred's desktop and the screen changed and cycled rapidly. The main screen showed up.
OFFICE OF SPECIAL PROJECTS
Password: _▌
A side window showed Rex cycling random characters for the password. Finally access was granted.
Under Digital Spear hundreds of schematics showed up with all the specifications.
- Oh my god. – said Collins looking at all the schematics. – They have a prison down there…
- We have to break in and free them. – said Tom.
- Too dangerous. We don't know what we are up against. Unless we can shut the mainframe down. – said Fred and then he stared at the EMP projectile. – I have an idea.
Fred worked all night fixing the projectile. Finally, morning came.
- Good. – Fred said yawning. – It's fixed. With this we can break in and if there is any problem, boom, we shut everything down.
- What about Rex? - asked Tom.
- That's the beauty part. – replied Collins. – Brice knew how the other creatures could be subdued so he created a backup for Rex so he could survive a couple of hours under the absence of the electromagnetic field.
- Good morning. – greeted Tom's mom.
- Good morning. How are you doing? – said Tom.
- Like hell. I was getting nightmares and…
- Wait…- said Collins standing up. – Do you hear that?
A very annoying buzzing sound came from outside and seemed to be getting louder by the second.
A giant explosion busted the ceiling of the trailer open. A giant splinted had missiled through the roof.
- Go outside! – yelled Collins.
As they stepped outside they saw a giant insect circling around the trailer. It looked like a giant yellow jacket wasp but was about the size of a car with purple beating wings. He flew by and made a few sweeps.
- Rex. Synchronize. – yelled Tom. – Rex, hyperthread to Circaetus gallicus.
Rex's body changed to the shape of a gigantic eagle creature which zoomed past the wasp and was able to tackle it with its talons from above. Both creatures struggled and crash landed in front of the trailer. Tom notices this wasp had a glowing bracelet around his neck.
- Rex. Peck on the bracelet. – commanded Tom.
Rex obeyed and the collar exploded on contact sending Rex flying to the ground.
Rex changed his shape back to normal and the wasp took off and flew northbound. Everybody could see in that moment that a convoy of military vehicles was approaching from that direction.
The wasp started to fire stingers at the tanks tearing them apart.
The tanks fired the artillery impacting the wasp with no effect. The infantry stepped down and aimed their riffles at it and started firing. Nothing. The bullets would just bounce off.
- Bring more ammo here. – said the sergeant yelling orders.
One agent in a suit stepped down of the car with a suitcase.
- Bullets won't work Serge. – said the agent opening the suitcase and assembling a strange looking sniper rifle.
- Cover me. – he instructed.
- Convoy 1. Fire! – instructed the sergeant as the shells blasted the wasp who turned around and kept firing stingers.
- I got you now….. – murmured the agent firing a single round which made contact.
The wasp plummeted and crash landed disintegrating after becoming immobile.
- We need to get to the base hurry. – yelled Fred telling his companions to go on foot. – Hurry up.
They ran to the entrance of a mine shaft. Fred took a dynamite stick stashed at the entrance and as they went into the tunnel Fred lighted the stick and tossed it to the entrance.
- Fire in the hole! – said Fred running crazy ahead of the group.
The explosion rattled the cave and made the entrance cave in.
