CHAPTER SEVEN: OUT OF BREATH
Saunders stood silently over Mirage for a moment. Putting his gun away, he kneeled down besides her to examine the wound he had made. He grabbed her injured arm, holding it firmly, making Mirage flinch from the pain.
She looked at him. It seemed that, enveloped by the red light emanating from the molten lava, Saunders had suddenly aged ten years. He looked tired now, old, his jaw clenched, lips white. He was eyeing her with a frown of defeat mixed with puzzlement, like a man who had seen too much and who could not bear any new burden. His eyes focused on her as he tightened the grip on her arm, grimacing, as he knew he was hurting her.
Saunders seemed concerned, though not by her injury, but with the fact that the generator area appeared to be slowly disintegrating. Mirage had caused a lot of damage in very little time. The installations were falling apart; two of the main boilers had been destroyed, the third one still stood but leaked searing steam. The lava level had reached the edge of the fissure and was now flowing out, spreading slowly like a red blanket, covering everything in its path. It would reach the base of the stairs soon.
"Why don't you do your little trick? I'd like to see it again," Saunders said to her, snarling through his teeth. He looked at her with curiosity, tilting his head on one side, not fully understanding the situation. "You can't do it, can you?" he said to her with satisfaction in his voice, laughing. "What kind of Super are you?" Saunders felt good at that moment, seeing Mirage injured, lying helpless against the stairs.
Saunders looked at the open wound in her arm. He reached towards it, to put his finger on the edge of torn flesh. He enjoyed touching Mirage. He rubbed his finger slowly around the opening of the wound, blood collecting on it, to run down his hand. Mirage trembled from the pain, but said nothing.
Saunders stopped for a second. He then poked his finger inside the gaping wound, making Mirage scream in agony. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" he said, in an excited, maniacal laugh.
He looked at the blood that had now covered his hand. An astonished expression suddenly crossed his face. Saunders had never seen anything like this.
In his hand, Mirage's blood glowed. Saunders thought for a moment that he might have been having hallucinations, but as he looked closer, he knew what he saw was real. A shimmering aura, faint, but clearly visible, surrounded the dark liquid. It remained there for a few seconds before fading. Now, all Saunders had in his hand was viscous blood, already coagulating. Saunders tightened the grip on her arm.
"What are you?" he barked at her. He looked afraid, but his eyes were filled with hate. "You're not even human…" He spat out those words in anger, mixed with disgust.
A sudden noise coming from a collapsing structure behind them made him turn around. After seeing they weren't immediately threatened, Saunders turned back to address her. Still holding her by the arm, he grabbed her by the collar, lifting her limp body up, her feet dragging on the ground.
"It seems you made a pretty good job at messing up my operation, Mirage," he said to her. "I'm going to make you pay for this..." He looked at her pendant. "But, first things first, let's see if we can figure out what you've downloaded here, I'm very anxious to know."
Saunders pushed Mirage against the staircase, holding her down. "Just to make sure you're not going anywhere, let me take a precaution."
The Captain took handcuffs from his utility belt, attached one end to his wrist, the other on the wrist of Mirage's wounded arm. She feebly attempted to resist, tears filling her eyes.
"Now, please come up with me, and let's see what you've got there," Saunders said, as he started climbing the stairs, dragging Mirage along from her injured arm, making her cry out from the unbearable pain.
As they reached the top of the platform, Saunders looked around. The damage Mirage had made was obviously irreversible. The lava level had risen steadily, to reach the base of the remaining boiler. It would be just a matter of time before it would also collapse. A low rumbling sound seemed to come from the ground below them, continuous and getting stronger. Occasional tremors shook the platform they were on, making Mirage wonder if it would collapse. Below them, the volcanic pressure slowly built as the evacuation channel had been blocked.
Saunders lifted Mirage to her feet again. He was a relatively strong man, it was easy for him. Dragging her to the computer console, he lifted her up to push her hard against it, Mirage's back forced to rest upon the angled control panel. Reaching for her neck to rip off the pendant and discarding the chain and clasp, he then scrutinized the small disk, rubbing it curiously between his fingers. He glanced around the console for an available drive. Finding one near Mirage's shoulder, he put the disk inside it.
Above them, a large screen lit up, showing the data the disk contained. It appeared, displayed line by line.
Saunders was stunned by what he saw: A list of hundreds of names had unfurled. Each entry came along with information relating to bank accounts, numbers, amounts, addresses and owners. The men and women listed on the screen were exposed, as were the aliases they used. The list also contained a detailed description of their known whereabouts, safe houses and accomplices.
The data had a timer that indicated it would be good for only twelve hours. After that, the algorithm of the encryption key that came with the data would re-scramble the information, the real identity of the people on the list fading away, lost again in cyberspace, the records useless to anyone who would have tried to identify those involved.
Saunders flinched when he recognized the names listed. "You still haven't told me who you're working for, Mirage," he said to her. "My employers would not be happy to be ousted like this you know, but they would certainly appreciate learning who is trying to bring them down."
Saunders voice became colder, as he seemed to have discovered a partial truth that he felt was unpleasant. "So, Mirage, you were just a spy, were you? Some kind of lower level operative initially sent by the government to find out who got rid of all the Supers... I'm not surprised, the government protected them. They must have wondered who was bumping off their investment and for what reason."
Saunders frowned at her. "Well, you got smart, obviously... When you figured out there was more to just Syndrome and his obsession with that Super, Mr. Incredible, you decided to stay on the ride a little longer." Saunders looked down at her. "Congratulations on a job well done, Mirage, you played us all along."
"Syndrome was a fool, Mirage," Saunders boasted, proud of his lack of respect for his former employer. "But I'm not. I had an eye on you since the day you set foot on the island. I wasn't fooled by your pretty girl charms." He shook her arm. "I'm just glad I caught you in time before you sent the data out." Saunders shook his head in disbelief. "You were on the plane, you could have gotten away, but you came back. That confirmed to me you were up to something and I decided to act."
Saunders looked triumphant. "That was your fatal mistake, Mirage." He smiled at her. "You failed. This information will never leave the island."
Saunders turned to look back as the rumbling sound engulfing the room became louder as a violent tremor shook the platform from side to side. Holding on to the console, the Captain stared at the lava for a few moments. His face changed. Mirage became concerned even more as she read his expression; He looked out in the distance, but he was lost in his thoughts. Saunders gazed down towards the stairs. It had all become clear to him now.
Everything he had possessed had been destroyed. He wouldn't admit it, but he knew he was a broken man, a dead man even, as the loss of the laboratory would probably never be forgiven by those who had invested in it. He had nowhere to go now, and Mirage was to be blamed for that.
No, the data would never leave the room, and Saunders decided in that instant, that neither would they.
Saunders looked again at the lava, its edge creeping slowly towards them. It would reach the bottom of the stairs within a few minutes.
"The island is falling apart, Mirage," he said to her calmly. "You've ruined me, you know..."
As he said that, he started trembling, his body almost convulsing. Mirage saw tears appear in his eyes. He turned away briefly to hide the fact that he sobbed now, unable to face her.
Saunders turned to look at her again. "I hate you," he said, through his clenched teeth, eyes red and wide, filled with tears. "I hate you, Mirage." His voice became shrill. "I've always hated you… Ever since the first day I ever laid eyes on you."
Saunders knew he was lying to himself as he said that. He had always known what he felt for Mirage. He would have chosen to burn in the fires of hell forever, only if he could have possessed her. And when their eyes first met, as she came out of the plane, Syndrome by her side, he knew in a moment that he was damned.
With a look of desperation on his face, the Captain leaned forward unexpectedly. He kissed Mirage in a long, slobbering, nervous kiss, his wet mouth open on hers. As he pulled away from her, he bit the edge of her lip, drawing a small amount of blood.
"You taste good, Mirage," he said calmly, as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I knew you would." He pulled his head back, eyeing her down with apparent curiosity.
"I never understood my attraction to your kind though," he said nervously, in a thin voice, trying to convince himself. "How could I be attracted to a Super? After all," he nodded, "they're filth."
Mirage felt a surge of rage growing inside her as she heard those words. She spat in his face. The gesture stunned Saunders momentarily, surprised that she had been so daring. He laughed as he wiped his face.
He put his free hand around her throat, forcing her head back against the console. She tried to wrestle herself away from him, but wasn't strong enough. Mirage felt the Captain's hand slowly squeeze, fingers of steel choking her, making her cough and gasp as she could barely breathe. The Captain felt a rush of pleasure, as he felt her struggling, terrified and helpless under his hand.
"You've ruined me," he said again, his voice high. He leaned on her, with all his weight, looking deep into her eyes.
"I'm going to kill you, Mirage," the Captain said coldly, his breath short. "But before I do that, I'm going to hurt you." Saunders was almost crushing her throat. "I'm going to hurt you so much, you will be wishing you were dead."
He looked at the computer console. "But first, let us get rid of this annoying data." Saunders turned away from her, to reach out to press the delete button.
The Captain's gesture gave Mirage a surge of adrenalin. For a fraction of a second, she never felt stronger.
As hard as she could, she slammed the palm of her free hand under the bridge of Saunders's nose, breaking it instantly. The Captain yelled out from the pain, pushing himself away from her, putting his hands up to protect his bleeding nose.
Mirage lifted both her legs, put her feet firmly against his sternum, and with all her remaining strength, pushed him. The Captain stumbled backwards as he lost his balance, dragging Mirage off the console along with him. They both fell to the floor, side by side. Mirage instinctively pushed herself away from him, as far as she could.
Mirage needed him to let go of her. She would only have a fraction of a second. As soon as he had stopped touching her, she vanished, the handcuffs hanging on Saunders's arm, one half empty.
Saunders had pulled out his gun as he got up, looking around for her. He shot at her immediately, as he saw her briefly standing in front of him a few meters away. The bullet went through Mirage's avatar. The image did not flinch.
In a flash, before Saunders knew where she could be, Mirage reappeared on his side.
With all her might, she hit him on the edge of the jaw with the fist of her able arm. Mirage felt Saunders's skull shake under her knuckles. He was stunned by the shock, as he stood there, speechless, his body oscillating back and forth. Not waiting another second, Mirage disappeared again, to reappear on Saunders's opposite side. She hit him again. He flinched even more.
Mirage transmutated one more time to rematerialize in front of him. Quickly reaching out, she firmly grabbed the knife from Saunders's belt.
In the same, determined, swift gesture, she stepped forward and planted the blade deep inside Saunders's heart. She held it there for a second. It was covered with blood as she pulled it out from his torso. Mirage took a step back, still holding the knife, to stare at the Captain.
Saunders stood there for a moment, with a bewildered look on his face. He looked at Mirage, to then place his hand on the wound in his chest, surprised as he watched his blood collecting in the palm of his hand. He looked at her again, mouth agape, his eyes wide open, eyebrows raised, as if he didn't understand he was dying.
Without a word, he felt face down, crashing to the floor. He did not move anymore. A pool of dark blood slowly spread from underneath his body. Mirage watched him for a moment, still clutching the knife. She stood there, shaking like a leaf, breathing heavily, still in shock by what just had happened.
Mirage wiped the tears that had formed in her eyes with the back of her hand. Even though she had hated him, taking a life would always be difficult for her.
A distant rumble caught her attention. As she looked outward, she noticed the lava had reached the staircase. It was time to go. Mirage looked at the Captain's body one more time. "You pig," was all she said. She put the disk in her pocket, and ran to the elevator.
Mirage waited anxiously for the elevator's doors to open. As they did, she jumped in and punched the main floor button. The elevator hummed softly as it went up.
As Mirage waited to reach the runway level, a heavy wave of nausea suddenly went over her. The cabin spun wildly, making her sway from side to side. She closed her eyes, leaning against the elevator's side. She had lost a lot of blood.
Mirage opened her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm the nausea that had taken her. She looked down at her bleeding wound for a second, took her right hand and placed it slightly above her hurt shoulder. She spread her fingers.
A thin, translucent aura seeped out of her hand, to enter the wound. As soon as she did that, her skin seemed to react to the gentle radiation; the blood flow reducing, the wound partially mending, but not completely. Mirage stopped after a few seconds, unable to go on.
I'm not strong enough, she thought, having lost herself in memories. I wasn't strong enough before, why should I be now? Mirage didn't clearly understand why the image of her mother had appeared in her mind at that particular time. She quickly chased the thought away. The wound in her arm would not heal anymore.
A larger rumble shook the elevator shaft. Everything went black in the cabin as the elevator suddenly stopped.
"Oh, дерьмо!" Mirage uttered, waiting nervously for the emergency generators to kick in, but it quickly became apparent that they never would, the lava having probably already reached them.
Not minding the darkness, Mirage looked around for an escape hatch, but there was none. The power had completely failed now; she would have to pry herself out the elevator.
Grabbing hold of the edge of one door panel with her able arm, she forced them to open, by leaning her foot against the other side. Through the small opening she made, she could see the elevator had stopped between two floors. Mirage took a deep breath and transmutated through the crack in the door that she had made, reappearing on the higher floor. The corridor was deserted and dark except for the flashing of the red strobe light of the general alarm.
Mirage still had to climb a few more floors to reach the air strip. Not waiting a second, she ran to the end of the long corridor, reaching the emergency stairwell. Her body felt like lead as she climbed the steps one by one, her mind focusing only on the negative floor numbers moving ever so slowly back towards zero.
Almost crying for joy when she felt fresh tropical air blow gently across her face, Mirage looked ahead to see the little plane, its door open, the access ladder down. More than ever, she felt proud of her computer skills.
Mirage's senses were on high alert. She held her knife out, as she anticipated some form of opposition to manifest itself, but none did. The tarmac, like the rest of the compound, had been abandoned in haste, the men rushing out to the forest in a feeble, futile attempt to reach the safety of the sea.
She dashed towards the jet, but suddenly staggered for a few steps and collapsed to the ground, as another intense bout of vertigo got the better of her. She saw the plane's image double as her eyes were unable to focus properly. Her body weighed a ton, her limbs like rubber, useless. With the cold concrete now scraping her cheek, Mirage felt an overwhelming fear starting to grip her, mixed with rage and despair. To be so close to her goal and yet unable to go on, to fail like that, was unbearable.
Mirage could never accept this. Gathering all her remaining energy, clearing the tears in her eyes, she got up, focused on the jet and transmutated towards it, taking a few strides to reach the boarding ladder. As she reappeared in front of it, she grabbed hold of the rungs and climbed inside feebly, her body drained and weak. She was relieved to see the plane had no one on board, not having the strength to fight off anybody who might have wanted to oppose her anymore.
Mirage reached the cockpit. Sitting down fast, she struggled to strap herself in the pilot's seat, the heavy seatbelts hard to pass over her injured shoulder. She did that, knowing the ride out would probably be rough.
A strong vibration from the ground suddenly shook the plane, making it sway from side to side. Mirage saw in horror that the landing strip had begun to crack, as did the concrete structures covering the tarmac. Pieces of broken cement, with steel shards were falling here and there now. There wasn't much time left before the plane wouldn't be able to lift off. The whole island would disintegrate soon.
Mirage knew that the destruction of the power plant below would be the least of her problems. The real trouble would start when the lava would reach the anti-matter containment units used for testing Syndrome's weapons.
In an uncontrolled form, the meddling of matter with raw anti-matter, even in small amounts, would release enormous quantities of energy. Anyone unfortunate enough to remain in the vicinity of such an event would find themselves instantly vaporised by what could be compared to the formation of a miniature star.
Mirage did not know how much time she had left. She would have to reach the limit of the transmission blackout bubble. It was all that mattered to her.
Glancing at the controls, Mirage then flipped a switch to put them fully online. In a second, all the panel lights were lit, the plane ready for takeoff, the engines humming gently as they were idling.
Mirage slammed the throttle forward, the engines roaring to life as the little jet jumped forward. The acceleration pushed Mirage back in the seat as she hung to the control wheel as hard as she could, her injured left arm of no use to her, hanging loosely at her side, still bleeding. She looked ahead and up, keeping an eye on the now crumbling structure around her. The roof of the tarmac seemed to move in a blur, as the plane accelerated towards the exit. Mirage had the impression that the runway would never end, as it seemed to be forever stretching forward.
The plane kept gathering speed, vibrating more and more as the cracking concrete and fallen debris slowly damaged the wheels. One of the rear tires of the plane suddenly burst as it hit a piece of concrete, sending sparks flying. Mirage kept her focus on the end of the hangar, the throttle fully opened.
A burst of sunlight blinded her as the plane finally reached flight speed, just as it came out of the hangar.
Instead of going up, the jet headed towards the forest below, as it was difficult for Mirage to pilot, the control wheel having been designed to be held by both hands. Mirage's blood rushed in her veins as she saw the forest getting closer. Mastering all her strength, she raised her injured arm, ignoring the pain, forcing it to grab the control wheel to pull back as hard as she could, to try to level the plane. It flew closer to the trees, clipping some of their branches, the small craft shaking as it hit them.
The trajectory of the jet began to correct. Mirage had already reached the edge of the forest, passing over the coral sand beaches, flying low over the water now. The plane flew barely above the surface of the waves. It could not go any lower.
Mirage's heart pounded in her chest as she felt that the plane finally obeyed her. It now started to climb steadily, accelerating, every control indicating normal activity.
The Manta-Plane had a very efficient design; full stealth mode and a large autonomy made it possible for the craft to cross the Pacific twice before having to refuel, virtually undetectable by radar. It was fast, easily able to achieve Mach 2, with a flight ceiling as high as U2 spy planes. Most important to her now, an advanced auto-pilot system enabled the plane to make unsupervised take-offs and landings. Mirage pushed the little plane to its limit.
She had not plotted a specific course to take, in her haste to leave. Her compass showed a heading of North, North West.
Mirage had her data disk ready now, inserted in its drive, as she kept an eye on the radar screen. On it, a circular yellow line indicated the perimeter of the blackout bubble. She would be reaching it any second now.
The island of Nomanisan was fundamentally a still active volcano that had pushed itself upward, like most islands in the Pacific, to reach the ocean's surface. Over the centuries, its surface would cool down and stabilize, covering itself with vegetation and life, to become a tropical paradise. But the illusion of peace and beauty that one could see had a fragile shell though. The molten core deep below would always want to liberate itself from the confines of the earth, pushing upward continually, waiting for an opportunity, like any weakness the upper crust would present.
The chain of events Mirage started would help it do just that.
The lava had filled the generator room halfway now, slowly melting away all the structures it touched. Earlier, as she controlled the Omnidroid, Mirage had avoided damaging a steel enclosed area, near the generators. It contained all of Syndrome's anti-matter supplies, sealed off from the rest of the world by an autonomous force field. The lava now had reached the enclosure, gnawing at it relentlessly. Even the strongest steel could not resist this type of attack without some form of cooling. The force field would fall anytime soon.
That moment had arrived. In a microsecond, matter united with anti-matter. The result, a massive amount of pure energy, liberated itself at the speed of light, engulfing, disintegrating everything in its path.
In an instant, the island of Nomanisan had ceased to exist.
Mirage had been staring at the radar screen almost continuously. She understood what had happened as the orange line of the blackout bubble suddenly faded from the screen. The chain reaction she anticipated had occurred, destroying the communications jamming systems in the process.
Mirage had been waiting for the moment when she would cross the limit of the blackout bubble, or when it would fail, whatever coming first. Pressing a button, the plane's powerful transmitter came to life, and instantly relayed the data to one of the multitude of satellites that orbited silently above.
An audible beep indicated the upload had been completed. Soon, the data would be downloaded on the other side of the world, analysed, and quickly, the necessary actions undertaken.
Mirage sighed in relief. She had completed her mission.
The automated pilot's metallic voice suddenly resonated inside the cockpit, warning of an impending collision threat. Mirage's grip on to the control wheel tightened as she looked to the horizon, bracing herself, knowing too well what was coming.
Mirage looked again at the radar. The shockwave created by the destruction of the island was visible on the screen as a thick, white circular line that moved quickly, much faster than the plane could fly.
It would reach the jet very soon.