Deus Ex: The Conspiracy
Chapter Thirty Eight: Those Illuminated by the Order
Two Days Ago
Ian Ridley was biting his fingernails. He would always fool himself into believing he had grown out of it, only to find himself doing it all over again. At times he would forget all about it, just live with it. At others, he would believe he had finally outgrown the habit completely, and he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. But it would always come back, no matter what he did, or how hard he did it.
"Huh, guess you owe me, then." said a voice from behind him.
Ridley jumped in his seat, causing the chair to swivel to a more unforgiving side, and he promptly fell off. Corporal Hutchens laughed mercilessly at this, and made no move to help him up. The rat bastard knew he had back problems, too.
Hutchens was his personal bodyguard. Now, the thing about bodyguards was that they were usually supposed to show respect for the one they were guarding. Military personal in the lab, however, were ranked higher then Science Team personal. So even ones bodyguard could insult his objective without fear of being reprimanded for it. Corporal Hutchens abused this privelage excessively.
The main cause of lowly privates being ranked higher than their intellectual counter-parts was mainly because of the fact that most of the scientists were ex-X-51 employees. Ridley had no history with them(he was being held here against his own will, granted), but the rules still applied to him irregardless.
"W-when did you come in?" He stammered.
"I've been here, mike. You have poor hearing, remember?"
After a brief re-collection of his thoughts, Ridley decided that he did remember. "Yes." He murmered.
"Doesn't matter. At any rate, you owe me ten credits."
Ridley got back up onto his seat, with a groan, and fished around in his pockets, looking for his Cred-A-Way credit keeper. He wasn't even gonna bother trying to worm his way out of it. At last, he found the credit receptacle, transfered it to a chit, and handed the chit to the black uniformed bastard, Hutchens. He let out a laugh that sounded suspiciously like a cackle, and handed the empty chit back to Ridley.
The bet was to see how long he would keep himself from biting his fingernails. Ridley had suggested two hours, while Hutchens insisted on twenty four. He had brandished his riot prod to help emphasize his point. By his count, he hadn't even lasted five. This was because he got nervous a lot, and when he got nervous he bit on them!
The main source of his current nervousness was, besides Hutchens, the e-mail he had just gotten a few seconds ago. Normally e-mails didn't do this to him. It would usually be spam, insults, death threats, requests to play NetScape by his friend in Transgenic research, etcetra. And they all had return addresses, and names. This one lacked both. It was just a blank letter, with no return address.
This was, to be frank, blatantly impossible. Every mail sent on the planet was monitored, and if you didn't specify a subject the mail wouldn't be sent. Simple as that. It was also blatantly impossible to not have a return address.
This could only mean one of two things. Either one, it was a terrorist e-mailing him, or two it was a fluke. This was giving him a lot of stress, obviously, and he was dreading opening it. But sooner would be better then later.
He looked behind him. Hutchens was busy in the bathroom. "You leaving soon?" He called in.
"Yeah, I just came in to check on you."
Translation: I just came in to piss you off.
He stepped out, and made sure his uniform was straight.
"I'm gonna go to the cafe, see what's happening with the boys."
Translation: I'm gonna let them all know how soon you cracked.
He was walking out the door now.
"See ya."
Translation: See ya, dipshit.
He was gone. Ridley removed his glasses, and slowly rubbed his eyes. He wanted to shout filthy words at the top of his lungs, but there was a security camera watching. He sighed, and the mouse cursor played over the "Open" link.
He suddenly felt the need to eat, so he checked his watch. Well, look at that! Two hours since lunch, better go out for a dessert!
An extremely shaky smile on his lips, he went out the door whistling a cheery tune.
Ten seconds later, he was back inside the room, angrilly clicking the mouse.
Dear Mr. Ridley
Upon the opening of this file, all surveillance devices in the room will fail. Any attempts to fix them will also fail. By now you must be wondering why you are reading this. It is because I haven Choosen You. I know how much you despise your oppresors. I know how much you wish to break from them. This will give you the opporutunity to do so.
Ridley frowned. The e-mail went on, way on, but already he was having misgivings. What did this man know about him? It was obviously a plot, which he would be then encouraged to tell his friends about, yadda yadda rebellion blah blah all get killed blah.
This had happened countless times before in other facilities. It had all ended in bloodshed, much of the time on the side which opted to begin said rebellion. Nonetheless, he was intrigued, just to see how it happened. He wouldn't allow himself to be brainwashed by a simple e-mail.
I know you. I know you are already suspicious of this e-mail. But I also know you cannot turn it away. I know how you strive to be part of something good, and large. I know how you despise being put to work on immoral experiments against your own will. I know you, you see. And soon...you will know everything.
The door to his room locked, and all around him darkness fell. A recording began to play.In the next five seconds, Ridley could not tear his eyes away from the screen.
Thomas Mann sighed to himself as another technician went down to the excavation area through his office. It was THE most annoying post in the damn facility, simply because of who he was, and how he liked to work. He was a mann(He mentally kicked himself for repeating that annoying gimmick) of privacy. In work only, he wanted nothing more than to collect his thoughts in peace, and transfer them onto pen and paper flawlessly. But that simply would not happen where he was stationed.
The constant hub bub of machinery, techi's and scientists going to and fro. His simple desk and black office was kept in the lower reachs of the facility, near the excavation facility, which was quickly turning into the most popular area of the base. And his office was the junction that connected the excavation area to the rest of the facility. So this got him a lot of people coming in an out, mumbling apologies as he sent them venomous looks, mumbled threats, and thought pleasing thoughts of their dismemberment.
"Sorry." Said another scientist.
This time Mann ignored him, and simply returned to his work. It was a simple report on how progress was going in the UC room, a place he barely even visited. Lots of babbling kept going on about how the UC was important after the one in Hong Kong had went up in flames. JC Dentons demonized form kept on playing in everyones head. Now that was the kind of guy Thomas would've liked to take a shot at...Everyone was obsessing over him.
He sighed, and returned to his work. It was at this moment that he realized that he was schedualed to have lunch with the rest of the guys at the cafe. He rapidly closed out of what he was doing, and hurried out. From here it would be a simple stroll into the Planteology wing, and then into the cafe.
He went on through the bulkhead to his office, and up the stairs to the planteology wing. It was one of MJ-12s least paid divisions, but it thrived in the Ocean Lab simply because of its location: 2,000 feet below the surface. An on-site location gave un-told amounts of data to the eggheads.
Transgenics, however, were the focus down there. Greasels and Karkians were naturally pre-disposed to living in an underwater enviornment, so it made as a perfect testing ground. There were many marvels down there, but perhaps the biggest of all was the 1,000 feet wide pressure bubble the Ocean Lab sat in. It was a large scale plastic bubble that surrounded the ravine the Ocean Lab was tucked into, which made the pressure down there suitable for human life. All the native wild-life had quickly died, however, but management couldn't be bothered to care. There were specific areas for the survivors, however, in the lab itself, where the pressure was kept to optimal levels for them. They had simply replaced those that had died with regular low pressure living fish.
Mann stopped his mental tour through the facility, and went on through the wing, passing scientists crouched over plants and over such things that they concerned themselves with. He passed on through another bulkhead, and came into the supply hall. C5 explosives were kept under guard here by a swiveling drone gun. He went on into the cafeteria.
It was a dim lit, dirty little place that served bad food, but it was the only place where one was permitted to simply lay back. Hutchens and Joseph were already there. They smiled invitingly, and beckoned him over. He didn't even consider heading onto the lunch line first.
"How the hell are you doing Mann?" Joseph said.
"Fine." Mann replied, rolling his eyes. He sat down, and made himself comfortable. No one else was in the room except for a few scientists.
"You gonna eat?" Hutchens asked.
"No." Mann said. "Anything happening today?"
"I'm up for a bit of pinball." Joseph said.
"Yeah, only because you win so damned much. "
Mann laid back, putting his feet up against the seat across from him. He always amused himself by listening to the two argue. In reality, he didn't exactly like either of them, but they were the closest things to sociable in the lab, so he put up with it. Eventually they decided on renting a movie from the local Majestic Video store. He smirked at that thought. A damned silly name, but it didn't surprise him. Their selection was horrible, too.
"...nah, Ridley's just being...Ridley."
"But what?"
"He kept on minimizing his e-mail screen whenever I looked over. Porn, I expect, cause he can't get some in real life." Hutchens said, and Mann thought, Yeah, you neither.
"You sure?"
"I dunno."
"Well, security has rewards for people who turn un-loyal colleagues in..."
"You seem to forget that I am a merciful man, Joe. Besides, Ridleys my buddy."
They both laughed at this. Mann sighed, still wondering why he had ever put up with them in the first place.
Margaret Haggerty raised an eyebrow as another e-mail from Bob Page found its way to her desktop. Administration was difficult enough without the constant bickering from Page. Every minute he wanted to know the status on the UC. She was the interim authority in the Lab, but she still had to answer to Bob Page. She closed out of what she had been doing(browsing a slanderous web-site made by her son), and opened the e-mail. There was another from Roland, but Page and his obsessions came first.
It has been two days since the last progress report, Haggerty. The UC must be running before the day is up. Failure to do so is not an option. Denton is still loose out there, and he could be coming for YOU next.
Haggerty laughed silently at that last line. Oh, sure, JC Denton was DEFINITELY on his way to kill her next...
Rolling her eyes, she continued on down the message. It was only a list of quotas and figures that had to be fulfilled. She closed out of the message, and got on the PA.
"Doctor Syme to Administrators office." She spoke into the microphone. She repeated the message, and sat back in her swivel chair. Syme was a trouble maker for everyone. He had no friends, (although he thought he did), and always played jokes on everyone else. He didn't seem to fully grasp where he was working, and just how easily he could be removed. She had to have a chat with him. And this time, he'd be out of her hair for good. She still remembered the time when-
No. We don't remember things like that, right, Margaret?
It was a threat more than a thought. She shuddered at the memory nonetheless.
She waited patiently for several minutes before a knocking began on her bulkhead. During that time, she had shut down the internet in her sons house manually, and this earned her a large mental pat on the back.
"Enter." She said.
Doctor Syme slowly scuttled inside. He wore thick milk bottle glasses, and had a sickening tendency to lurch as he walked. His pointed nose gave him a un-ending ugliness.
"You wanted to see me, Administrator?" He said in what seemed to think was a seductive voice. Resisting the urge to vomit, she gestured for him to take a seat.
"We're both adults here, Syme. So we're going to act like adults." She felt like the principal at some high school, and grimaced.
"Oh, of course." Syme grinned.
"I think you know why you're here."
"No, I don't. Enlighten me."
"Eshers cat-"
Syme turned crimson, and frowned, "Oh, oh, yes that. N-no need to recount those events."
"Then I see that you understand why I've called you here."
"Erm. Yes."
Haggerty removed her glasses, for drama mostly, but also to rub her eyes. Syme shifted in his seat uncomfortably. She looked up at him, "Syme, you've already had your five warnings."
"Yes..."
"So. You know what that means."
"Yes..."
"Transfer into the UC chamber." She finished. It was a crewmembers worst nightmare. Radiation, loud noises, your ears poping...and rumors of transgenic outbreaks. Of course, there were escaped mutants down there, but they didn't need to know that.
"Haggerty, please, we don't have to do that-" Syme babbled. Haggerty cut him off with one single hand gesture, and leaned forward.
"Of course we do." She said. "You're the bases biggest troublemaker."
"Now that's a generalization-"
"It isn't." Haggerty responded cooly. She was through with him, "Your re-assignment card will be delivered to you in several days." She said.
Syme hung his head, and left the room, but not before sending her what he must had assumed to be an evil look. She rolled her eyes, and returned to her work.
Ridley was...calm now. Yes, that was the operative word there. Calm. All other emotions were trivial to him. He no longer bit on his nails. Slowly, he got up from the chair, turned, and left the room. There was nothing, for now, except what he was required to do. The nervousness was simply erradicated. It was beautifully simple. In a simple matter of hours, he was so much more...enlightened. And it was lovely.
The steel lined halls outside were...so much tinier. Far more compact. Another scientist, Alen, went past, and said hello. He returned the favor. That man was a simple being. It would be best to entertain him with such simple things. And besides, subtlety was imperative for what lay ahead.
He was heading for the armoury, where the C5 was kept. Then, he would place them, quietly, at several places around the base. There was more, but that objective came first.
His mind flashed. Gun. He would require a gun, as a precaution. The armoury would have one. He continued to walk, a bounce to his step as he anticipat-No. He no longer feld anticipation. Or did he? It was confusing. It mattered not, however, because it was irrelevent. He went on, satisfied with this conclusion.
After a brief half hours walk, he found himself in front of the armoury doors. A guard was posted there. Surely he would ask his business in being there. Then it would have to be taken care of.
The guard asked his business there, although it wasn't that formal. Ridley responded to this by wenching the pistol from the guards holster, and firing upon him. Once. Then twice. The man went down, blood covering the wall behind him. Ridley entered the armoury. From here, he selected a more adequete weapon, and collected the C5 needed for his objective.
Then, it was a simple matter of placing the bombs. He did this, and it took two hours time to place them. One in the habitation deck, one near the transgenic cage generator, one near the computer mainframe, one near the de-pressurization tube, and another on a sub schedualed to go out near the Pressure Bubbles wall. Those were only a few, and best of all, no body had asked him what he was doing.
He headed back to his quarters, to initiate the final steps.
Several Hours Later...
Yushio Igaki once again found herself wondering how the male race had ever evolved in the first place. She was staring into the rec room, a bemused smile crossing her face as the scientists and security officers crowded over a small TV screen, a video game dominating their attention at the moment. They hooted, they hollered; they were causing a general ruckus. She didn't know what game they were playing, and she didn't care. All she knew was that her quarters were right next to them, and she couldn't sleep.
She worked in the Transgenics department, although it certainly wasn't willing. She hated what she had to do. Twisting animals, and making them monsterous creatures. It wasn't glamerous, certainly, but it wasn't like she had a choice...She missed working with Savage.
She opened the clear glass door to the room, which was dominated by the TV, pinball machine, and pool table, and wasn't surprised when no one turned to see who was coming inside. She scanned the faces inside briefly. Mann, Hutchens, and Joseph were standing to the side, looking annoyed. Mann wielded a DVD box in one hand. It read "The Avengers", with generally avenger-ish box art on the cover. Or at least what she assumed to be avenger-ish. At any rate, it looked just as obnoxious as the video game, and she was beginning to doubt her ability to stop them.
Also there was Roland, Esher, and Jin, and several other officers she did not recognize. She was a bit surprised to see that Ridley wasn't there. He usually was, being the video game freak of the facility. Discounting these freaks, of course.
Then again, no one had seen him for hours, when she had inquired about him. His quarters were locked, and an x-ray scan revealed that he wasn't in there at all. Odd.
"Ahem." She attempted. No one, un-surprisingly, turned to see what she wanted. "AHEM!"
Mann turned, and smiled, "Hey there." He said.
She sighed, "Can you ask them to stop? I'm trying to get some sleep."
Mann frowned, "Uh, we're trying to watch this movie...Are you busy-"
"No." She said flatly.
"Damn." Mann cursed. She sighed again.
"Guys?" She asked. She poked one of them in the back. Incredibly, he didn't seem to know he had been touched. She sighed, and turned back to leave.
Explosions erupted from somewhere in the base, and that got all of their attention. Then, the lights blew, and the screaming began.
Set: directory. Execing...
Directory: personal
Begin message;
You have been in the service of the False Ones. Those who call themselves
"majestic," but have so little understanding of the true Doctrine of the
Mighty. It is unfortunate that you will not be able to comprehend the Plan,
the Way, the course that has been carefully laid out for us over a thousand
years. I truly wish you could see the beauty of everything as it has been
shown to me, and then you would understand why I must undertake such extreme
measures.
By the time you receive this message it will already be too late. The computer
virus will have been released, and by now the entire network has been
thoroughly infiltrated. I am sorry. The only comfort I can give is that your
necessary sacrifice will be for a higher cause.
(attach package: prgrm: Illumination is At Hand.)
Directory: End message.
The Illuminated One smiled. Explosions ripped through the base, but he was deaf to them. They wouldn't effect the key areas, needed for him to escape, but they would be sufficent enough to disable the entire Unholy compound.
His fingers danced about the keyboard again, and the program needed to set the auto turrets upon the other crew members was implemented.
Haggerty hit the deck as soon as the first cascade of explosions hit. Her mind raced with every possible scenario. The reactor going critical, experiments setting off, the C5 cannisters some how exploding, JC Denton arriving and blowing stuff up-
There was a sickening lurch in the Labs tilt.
"Warning: All Ocean Lab Personal. Violent seismic activity detected. Critical systems have been compromised."
Haggerty regarded all of these events with a new found coolness, a calm that de-sensitized her. There was a problem. She would have to fix it.
She rushed over to her computer. First she would have to know just what the problem was. She started by checking all current IM conversations and out-going e-mails.
JRaller to FFaherty
JRaller: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!
FFaherty: Dude, calm down, just be calmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmpopkgrrs
JRaller: Frank?
JRaller: FRANK!
Haggerty went to another conversation.
TMann: Shit, explosions are going off. Intruder alarms are going off. Everything is going off. To all who can see this message, COME to the rec room. We're safe here, for the moment.
ALeopard: o thank god, we got ded and wounded down hre, blod is everywhere but im still alive along with some other people WTF happened
TMann: Where are you?
ALeopard: um, near the planteology wing, i hear roaring...omigod. the transgenics.
TMann: Forget it, just get everyone over here as soon as possible, I'm gonna try contacting Haggerty.
Haggerty instantly settled into the desk, ignoring the fog that started to come into the room. Cold started to spread across her body. She sealed the door.
MHaggerty: I'm here, Tom.
TMann: What the fuck just happened?
MHaggerty: I don't know. An explosion of some sort. I think the C5 might have gone off.
She began to hear screaming in the distance.
MHaggerty: I hear screaming. This is bad...
TMann: Yeah, no shit.
All the while, different people were talking hysterically.
MHaggerty: I've got to contact Page, hold on.
She exited the conversation, and went to "Out-going" mail. She typed up a quick message to Bob Page.
Level Five emergency. Unknown number of casaulties. Explosive devices may have been used. Require immediate evacuation effort.
She sent it, then returned to the conversation.
MHaggerty: Mann?
TMann: Here. People are starting to come in, and a we killed a greasel.
MHaggerty: Christ, they're loose?
TMann: Yeah.
MHaggerty: Damnit. Alright, I'm gonna head your way...Wish me luck.
TMann: Will do.
She took out a small defense pistol from her coat pocket, wiped her glasses clean, and ran out the door.
She never saw the message that dominated the screen two seconds later.
One Hour Later...
Mann leaned back against the recliner, his head hurting. The rec room was exponentially crowded now, and the tempurature was rising. All and all, it was a horrible situation. No one had ever experianced anything like this before. He was lucky he even had a seat...
It was...all...Ridleys fault. All of it. He didn't know why, but it was insane, whatever his reasons. The message shocked him, and freaked him out. He wanted to kill him, Mann realized. He had never actually wanted to kill a man before(Besides maybe JC Denton.) But it didn't matter at this point. It was quite likely that they were all going die.
Don't start getting pessimistic. Save that for the scientists.
The thing was, nothing was happening. Things had exploded, but nothing more had occured. It was likely that they were all going to starve to death. The realization of the disaster hadn't seemed to kick in with everybody yet. There was no game plan, no nothing. Some people even believed this to still be a drill. He vaguely wondered what was going on with everybody else in the lab...
Haggerty and Leopard hadn't arrived yet. As an officer, he assumed the worst. If it had been under different circumstances, he would have sent out teams to find them. Take control of the situation. But this was different. There was a foreboding. There was still the threat of transgenics. But he couldn't stay put. He had to take charge.
He got up, and waved his hand for a bit at everyone, attempting to get over their voices until they were all looking at him.
"Thank you." He said quietly, "I'll be blunt. I don't know what happened. It's likely that a lot of people are dead, but we can't stay here and all die, too. We gotta move out, get outta here, or at least get some place safer." He moved forward into a more suitable position, and spoke again, "We're in one of the more remote parts of the base. We gotta get some place nearer to the sumbarine bay. I'm not sure if there are any LRV's left, but...They've got to come for us sooner or later." That last part was lame, he reflected.
There was a murmer of agreement among the spectators. Not exactly what he had been expecting, but obviously mint nonetheless. He spent the next five minutes organizing them into one large group, tactically sound(or at least what he was hoping to be), and they were soon leaving the rec area.
It was good to be organized now. It was both tactically, and pschyologically sound,(although he wasn't exactly an expert in that.) He would have perferred an actual sense of security to a potentially false one, however. They began to walk.
The halls were generally quiet except for their footsteps, which gave the entire base an errie feel. He hated it. Eventually, however, there was some groaning in metal, tilt shifts, and...roars in the distance. Just how badly was the facility damaged? And where were Pages response team? Were ALL of the transgenics loose? They didn't see anything, however, and after an hours walk of winding corrirdors that seemed to naught have perviously existed, they were coming along the corridor to the LRV bay.
Too easy, Mann thought. The scientists began to run eagerly towards the bay.
And somehow it just got worse.
Watching the interlopers on the camera, Ridley considering letting them go. The base was critically damaged, true, but was there really need in all of them dying?
Of course there was. It wasn't the metal of the base after all, it was the minds inside the base. He turned to the back-up C5 detonators, and selected the one needed for this occasion. He allowed himself to feel a sort of pride for his thoughtfullness. He pressed it down, and the route the interlopers needed was blocked off. Some of them even died in the process. Most excellent.
Then, he detonated the back passage. Then he observed their reactions for the time being. Fright, anguish, hatred. Nothing that was particularly important to what he was doing. Except for some rooms along the hall, they were effectively boxed in. And those rooms were filled to the very top with ravenous beasts. He opened them.
Things moved ultra fast. Far too fast for Yushio to keep track of. The corridor ahead exploded. She was instantly deafened to both sight and sound for just a split second, and then a large block of rubble stood in their path. Behind them, the same thing occured. Mann yelled something out to the panicking scientists. People were screaming.
She dully reflected, And to think that sleep was my biggest problem two hours ago. She had started the day in her quarters, fitful from sleep...and hadn't even considered the possibility of something as unreal as this happening.
She had skipped breakfest, she realized. As soon as this was realized, she was desperately hungry. She wandered over to the wall, and lay back against it. I am in shock, she thought, I must be a vegetable. Ridley was doing this to them. Instead of hatred, she just felt...annoyed.
"Everyone calm down!" Mann yelled. His voice carried out over the rest of them, but it hardly did anything to stop them from panicking.
The remaining doors in the hallways slid open with impotent slowness. The screaming reached a higher volume. And then, several dozen transgenics of varying species and sizes filled the hallways. Terror became the prevailing emotion in the room, to those who were able to feel it.
People began to die at a particularly fast rate.
Authors Note: You know, I actually intended to finish the Ocean Lab incident in one chapter, but I reached my usual quota for writing, AND this delay must have annoyed you. I'll do my best not to let it happen again.
In other news, the next chapter should finish up the Ocean Lab incident, and then we can get back to JC.