Chapter 3: Adolescence
"What the fuck is going on?" Jeffery thought to himself. A hissing sound was all he could hear, and even that quickly faded from detection. On the brink of vomiting, he forced his eyes open. His senses were numbed and he was without the slightest idea where he was, and how long he had been out.
"Where am I? I've got to get the hell out of here." He felt that he was lying in a gurney, and a low quality one at that. It creaked every time he moved. His senses were still foggy, and he was using all his willpower to try to focus on getting up. He rolled over, and fell onto the floor. Fighting to control his motor impulses, he pushed himself up, and had to lean against the wall to stay upright.
"Well, now I know my limit." He thought to himself. He walked pushed himself out the door, too exhausted to consider what might happen. He immediately found himself face to face with a man who appeared to be a surgeon. He froze for a second, and fainted back from shock. He had been carrying a surgical saw, which clanged to the ground. A shuffling of feet responded to the sound. Jeffery tilted his head, to see a few doctors peering out of their patient's rooms, and gawking at him. After a moment of silence, they bolted back inside.
"It's awake!"
"It killed Cranford!"
"Hide!"
Jeffery couldn't fathom what was happening, and as he whipped his head around to check his surroundings, he caught a glimpse of himself in the saw. His face mask and goggles were still on. He had to admit he looked like some sort of robot. The surgeon must've been preparing to dissect him. Well, that wouldn't be happening.
Running down the hall, he slid to a stop at the corner. Looking to his right, there was a sign that gave directions to a staircase. He started running again. He easily crashed through the wooden door. The fire alarm went off, and he realized it was an emergency exit. He ran all the way down the stairs and left a pair of footprints in the concrete at the bottom of them when he jumped down. Knocking the door down, he saw a bald man in front of him, and stopped as a reflex, inches in front of him. The man spoke out.
"You're tough to keep down. I thought this would happen."
The man held out his hand.
"I am Lieutenant Strickland of the United States Marine Corps, and you have a bit of explaining to do. Your name please?"
***
A half-hour later, Jeffery couldn't believe where he was. After a short drive, a few security checks, and a lot of suspicion over his suit, he and Strickland were inside the National Security Agency Headquarters. As he walked down the hall with him, there was an incomprehensible chatter around him, on topics of location, predictions of targets, recent intelligence acquired, transmission, and communications. Insane amounts of information being passed around and processed for the tiniest bit of meaning, it was like a flesh-and-blood internet. Strickland beckoned for Jeffery to keep up.
"So you say the man's name was San?"
"Yes, San Hyang-Soon." Jeffery told him, still unable to focus completely. "He said he was a corporal. Does that mean anything?"
"It means we're in deep shit. And he has enough reason to do an operation like this. He never does anything on an impulse, as far as we can tell. It's really just logic, since he almost never fails. He's been slowly pushing back around Cambodia, but then, he moved up, somewhere in North Korea. After that h... why don't you take the suit off?"
"What?"
"The suit you're wearing, why are you still in it?"
"I can't get it off. We had a program we had to run from a terminal when the suit was in a port, to be able to open it and take it off. The best I can do is remove the oxygen mask and the goggles. Nothing else."
"I can't imagine what it's like having to be inside one of those things. I'd get claustrophobic and start going nuts."
"Believe me, you have to get used to it quickly. So, where are going?"
"Right now, we're going to overlook the security footage to see what we more we can find out. As I said before, we're already trying to find him, so you're lucky you're giving us some more to work with. It's the good side to--"
Jeffery jumped to attention, believing this to be an insult.
"What good side? Are you kidding? There is no good side. Several of the people on that team I am very good friends with, and no doubt they're just wasting away somewhere in South Korea or wherever the fuck, and in addition to that, my efforts are now worthless, destroying the long hours I spent wasting my life to make this thing that I am currently stuck inside of work! And now I can't even fucking get out of it. I say again, what good side is there?"
For a second, everyone froze, shocked out of their current tasks by Jeffery's outburst.
"That was some crazy mood swing. I thought you'd be bit freaked, but that surprised me. You have to understand that you are actually very fortunate, even considering the situation. We can still devote full attention to finding them, and I can tell you this is cause enough for an invasion. But first, we need to know where they came from."
"Christ. It just strikes me as impossible that everything happened at once."
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Or, in your case, the farther. You should've seen that flatbed you hit. Totaled."
Before Jeffery could respond, they had reached another door. Strickland opened up the door to show a few people inside a medium sized room. It seemed there was an awful fuss going around.
"What's up?" Strickland asked them.
"We think there's some-- what the fuck is that?"
"That's Jeffery Barnes, I'll explain later. Now what's going on?"
"Nothing, we think there's a bit of a messup. Looking at the footage from the cameras, it seems that they used a V-22. They can't hide something that big while it's in the country, so it must be from overseas. But it's not built to go that far. Then, a few people further south, near Jacksonville, reported seeing a military aircraft pass overhead, only 9 hours later. So, it's obviously a fast mover. But it's just not possible, in all sorts of senses, for it to go that far. If it is Hyang-Soon, then he can't be in Korea."
"Did the outpost say anything else? Or is that it?"
"Nothing."
"Well, that's simple. They're not the same plane."
"But they have to be. There's no other VTOL of that make that's even been glimpsed anywhere in Asia. It just doesn't make any sense."
Bored of waiting for an answer, Jeffery spoke up.
"What if there's a halfway point? That way the plane could be landed, and a different mode of transport could be taken the rest of the way. Or the plane could be refueled."
"You think that never crossed our minds? Of course it did. That's an obvious solution. The problem is that they still can't be the same plane. I don't think you understand how short range it is. This plane is not meant to cross an ocean. It will get you between aircraft carriers, and no more."
Jeffery grinned.
"You just solved your own problem. He flies out, he lands on one of these huge ships, and then either refuels or just takes the ship the rest of the way."
One of the men looked at him, with a sarcastic expression.
"And what ship would they land on that's within range? Don't you think we would have noticed that? We said before that just the plane was too massive, and you think there's a fucking ship? Anything like would have been blown out of the water as soon as it came within a hundred miles of the coast."
Strickland spoke up. "Then our problem is still unsolved."
"What about a stealth ship?"
"What?"
"A stealth ship. You know, no right angles, radar goes right over it?"
Jeffery was met with unagreeing faces.
"You didn't see 'Tomorrow Never Dies'? I liked the idea. No right angles at all, so radar bounces off of it. If it's even noticed it looks smaller than a submarine periscope."
"Can they do that?", a quiet voice inquired.
"Hell, yeah. The VTOL, or whatever you call it, was irregular in shape. I'm sure it also has some sort of surveillance jamming device on board too."
This still solved no problems, of course. But it gave way to a simple solution.
"Boys, call up the Naval Base." Strickland said. "We need a ship ready, with a small recon boat onboard."
"So we're going to look for it?" Jeffery inquired, hopefully.
"Doesn't seem to be another way."
***
"What?" asked Jeffery, having been denied permission to accompany the rescue squad.
"I'm sorry." Strickland said, with his head tilted down. "I don't make the calls, but the boys upstairs want you to stay in the US. The suit is too valuable."
"Bullshit. And the engineers aren't?"
"Hey, like I said, that's a valuable costume you're in. As much at it would help, it's too much of a risk. As much as you might think it, you're not invincible. And if you die, I'm in deep shit with my superiors."
"So what if I die? All they want is the suit."
"And the man who tested it. You're going to be staying under U.S. Federal possession. Until we get that thing off you, you belong to the U.S. Government."
As Strickland turned and walked away towards the boat, and climbed on, Jeffery called back to him.
"You know this means I'll have to sneak on!"
Without turning, Strickland retorted back:
"Now I can't say I didn't know about it!"
Jeffery could only watch, as the other Marines loaded assorted materials onto the ship. Scanning the hull, he noted no possible entry except through the one pressure door. That was out of the question. Too many people. He walked to the edge of the concrete dock, and looked down, at the bow. Still nothing. There has to be some way up. An emergency hatch or something. Nothing.
Seeing no way to board the interior, he then chose to consider a way to get on the deck. Looking at huge cargo door, he had a sudden flash of memory, clinging to the VTOL. Considering his chances of actually scaling the side of the ship, and comparing them with his chances of falling in the ocean, it was a slim chance. But, then again, so was surviving a 300 foot fall. Seeing no other options, Jeffery fastened his oxygen mask. He would be needing it.
Obviously, there were too many people to get in the water here. Walking further down the side of the ship, behind a large cargo crate. Stopping for a second to wonder why such a huge load would be needed, he reasoned the ship was also being used for other purposes. Not letting his mind dwell on it, he jumped into the ocean.
"Maximum Strength." The suit uttered.
Pushing his hand against the inertia of the water, he gripped the metal, and tightening his fist, it slowly gave way and crumpled into a handhold. Taking a deep breath, he brought his other hand up, and repeated. The scrape of metal sent a shiver down his spine, and he feared the noise would give him away. But, it was drowned out by the start of the engines. No turning back now, he thought to himself.
Climbing slowly up the back, and eventually emerging from the water, Jeffery could see the skies becoming cloudier, showing they were moving quickly out to sea. Forcing himself up, the suit making it just possible to haul himself up. At the top, and out of breath, he threw one hand over the edge of the deck. Using what was left of the suit's energy, he pulled his body up, and lay for a moment, letting the suit recharge, and trying not to move.
Once fully charged, he rolled over, and ran to the nearest wall. Here's where those hours on Splinter Cell pay off. He had no plan, but knew from instinct that what he needed was somewhere he could both wait, and blend in. The suits texture would let him wait anywhere with a metallic surface, so most of the ship would suffice. But, for extra security, he needed cover. Down in the cargo hold would work for the time being.
Now, he just had to get there. Time was wasting.