THE TENTH DISK
By blackhart
copyright MM Abacus Fiction, revised 6/26/2001

Chapter Ten

X

After our lunch, Roll and I headed back to HQ. Se went off her own way to
find Iris and talk. I, however, after checking my internal clock, realized I had
about thirty seconds to get to the briefing room before the plans for raiding
Epsilon's fortress were discussed. I swore to myself silently and dashed all
the way to the room. Knocking Skyler, another Hunter, down once, I stopped
to apologize, and dashed off again.
Thankfully, my auto-repair systems had handled the wound on my
chest, and had numbed my soreness. I was glad for that. I needed to be in
tip-top shape for this next mission.
I opened the door of the conference room very quietly and slowly.
Every eye in the room turned to stare at me as I entered, even the speaker,
Netrix, pausing to look at me and smile. Amazing, I thought. I've been able to
sneak my way into many a fortress, but I can't get into one meeting without
everyone noticing me. I managed a half-smile and a nervous laugh to
everyone, then took a seat beside Zero and Chakra. Zero looked a little
flustered from his training, his hair a little wild. I stifled my laughter and
watched the main holographic display as Netrix gestured toward it every now
and then with his pointer.
"Zero," I whispered, "where's Iris?"
"Dr. Cain's upgrading her weapons and defense systems to Hunter
standards."
"You mean...?"
"She wants to fight with us, X," he hissed. "Roll's hot for the idea,
too, I heard."
"She went off to talk to Iris, my foot," I muttered to myself.
"What was that?"
"That's where Roll is now, probably. Down at the upgrades lab."
Zero nodded. He tapped his arm's mini-computer. "I keep tabs on
this place more than Cain does. She's down there right now with Iris, getting
air-dash enhancements installed."
"Little paranoid about security, are we, Zero?" Chakra whispered,
smiling.
Zero was about to give him what-for when Netrix made a very
deliberate cough from the podium. "Ahem, gentlemen..."
All three of us turned to stare at him. "Really, gentlemen, I
expected a little more attention from you both," he gestured to Zero and I.
We both cast sheepish grins and sat back in our seats. Chakra
shrugged his shoulders and sat back up as well. "Now, if there are no further
interruptions, any other conversations anyone needs to carry..." Netrix said,
addressing the room, "I'll continue.
"Epsilon has the final three-disk package of sigmae mavericus
source code, as you all know," he said. "Your aim while in his fortress is to
retrieve these disks for destruction, and to disable Epsilon. I must repeat,
for all of those that were on the last mission..." with this, he took a gaze at
Zerrin, Gyrus, Wetrix, and Shados, "that this Maverick is not to be destroyed
or terminated in any way, unless a case of EXTREME emergency arises. Is
that clear?"
Everyone answered affirmatively. "Good. You'll receive further,
more detailed instructions when you arrive at Epsilon's. Until then, you're
dismissed."
I stood up. "One thing, Netrix...?"
He motioned for everyone else to sit, then gestured towards me.
"Yes, Commander?"
"About the disks we've been retreiving... Is it possible that all of
Sigma's archives could be on the tenth disk, and the rest simply be fakes?"
"I suppose it could be, X. However, our sources had confirmed that
the archives were split among these ten for security reasons."
I frowned at that. Zero had told me at lunch, via our
communicators, about Chakra's theory of Argyle... "Could it possibly be that
we have a leak here? A Hunter in our very midst, giving us false
information? You recall as well as I do, Netrix, that no one has checked the
contents of the disks..."
"Because they contain parts of the Sigma virus. If we were to scan
them in a computer, he could take it over and tap into the Hunters'
networks..."
"His parts are in archives, supposedly. They aren't active while
compressed into archives, Netrix. And still, no one has surveyed the
contents of these disks. The tenth disk could very well be the only one with
any contents."
He nodded, defeated. "We'll scan those that come back from
Epsilon's," he said. "Thank you, sir."
"Thank you, Netrix."
"Now can we dismiss?"
"Dismiss away."


* * *

Zero

I waited for the dropships to land. I had never been more anxious about
anything in my life. Trying as this battle was, even more trying was the wait
on my nerves. I cleared my throat as I stared out of the dropship's window
to the earth below.
As the ship landed as the doors were flung open, I practically leapt out of
the opening, overly eager to get this battle over and done with. Staring up at
the black tower that was Epsilon's fortress, I found its massive shape to be
bleak and uninviting. One entire wall was covered with a light green ivy of
some species, which had no flowering blooms of any description. The sky
around here had taken on a dramatically red air, with a greyer sea of clouds
hanging over the fortress. Nice touch, I thought cynically. Overall, the whole
thing was pretty damn creepy.
As we approached the building, we noticed no outside security. Epsilon
must've been comfortable with tougher security inside. I kept my hopes up
about this. We knew almost nothing about the specs of this stronghold, just
as we had not for Pi's or Delta's. We had come through those okay. We
could do this.
I stepped to the front of the line, sliding up alongside X. With a toss of
my hair and a signal to HQ to begin our mission objectives recording, I was
going in.