31: Archive
The Defence Minister moved at a brisk pace. John followed, feeling a mounting worry as they traversed the corridors of the headquarters building. They passed a few windows here, revealing that they were within some form of military compound inside the city itself. The government district would not have been too far from here, and drab green trucks and armoured vehicles were parked in columns in a yard outside. The perimeter walls were tall and made from red brick, capped off with rolls of barbed wire.
The Defence Minister took them to a distant corner of the building and down a flight of stairs, heading into another section of the basement. Down here, more dreary grey corridors awaited, all dusty and worn-out concrete surfaces with metal pipes snaking across the ceilings. The Minister seemed to know exactly where he was headed, and so John simply followed, sensing the anger and worry emanating from the man himself. It was apparent all was not well within the Kelownan government, and from the sound of it this 'General Karn' had been causing problems for the civilian government for some time, even more so since the plague had first started to spread.
There was a metal door down the end of the corridor. Voices could be heard coming from within, and John recognized one of them right away.
"Lieutenant," he called, and he barged past Minister Ovillio and pushed open the metal door. He stumbled into a mostly empty room, save for the table in its centre that was occupied by Elsie Rhodes and someone else, a tall and fierce looking man in military uniform. A guard was standing off to the side, and as soon as John entered the General shot a furious look his way.
"Guard, get him out of here!" The General barked. The Defence Minister entered then, and he shot General Karn his own outraged expression.
"You will do no such thing!" Ovillio exclaimed. Elsie had her head down, and blood was trailing off of her left hand. Two of her fingernails had been pulled, and John rushed over to her side to find the Lieutenant was visibly sweating, her breathing heavy. They had not visibly beaten her, but there was otherwise no telling as to what other pain they had inflicted on her since they had been separated. As it stood, the fingernails on her little finger and her ring finger on her left hand had been yanked out, and the pair of pliers that had done it had been left on the desk, now smeared with blood.
"General Karn, is this your idea of an interrogation?" Ovillio stood across from the General, who glared at him but said nothing. "This woman is a member of the makalvari delegation. She has diplomatic protections that, under Kelownan law, put her under the jurisdiction of the House of Assembly and not Defence Force Command. She should have been transferred to me, you know this, General."
"You've made a new friend, Minister?" Karn practically spat the words, eyeing John with noticeable contempt. John leaned over Elsie then, tugging at the binds keeping her pinned to the chair.
"Guard, free this woman." Ovillio turned to the single guard in the room. He nodded, before he started for Elsie's place. The Lieutenant looked to John and gave him a smile.
"You know, Colonel, I used to worry about breaking my nails, not losing them altogether."
"We're getting out of here," John said. The guard pulled a serrated knife then, and he used it to cut away the plastic ties that were at Elsie's wrists and ankles. Right away the Lieutenant rose to her feet, relieved to be free of the cutting plastic. Her wrists were visibly marked by the binds, and a few small cuts had opened up during her struggles with them. Blood dripped from her two damaged fingers, and she winced as she flexed the digits of the affected hand. Painful injuries, but nothing to be too worried over. John was relieved to see her alive.
"You're interfering with a military matter, Minister," the General stated. The guard stashed his knife away and backed up, moving clear of the agitated General. "These people are agitators, agent provocateurs sent to us by a foreign power. They are the ones who unleashed this plague on Kelowna. They, and their makalvari allies, intended to plunge us into chaos, knowing that we would turn to them for help. They want to make us little more than their vassal state, subjugated to their whims."
"There is absolutely no proof of this," Ovillio said. John took Elsie aside, eyeing the General with a cautious gaze. There was something volatile about this man, as if his stern façade could fall away at any moment to unleash the fury that John sensed was brimming just under the surface.
"It is as clear as day that this was their intention all along." The General pressed on, convinced of his theory. What John suspected was that General Karn was a man on the brink, driven to the edge by the chaos that had sprung up all over Kelowna in the past six months. "Do you not know that the makalvari intend to place their ships in orbit? They would have this entire planet placed within the sights of their most powerful weapons. What choice will we have then? We cannot hope to match that kind of firepower."
"Torturing a woman from Earth is hardly going to make a difference," Ovillio countered. John had initially figured Ovillio to be a reserved, mild-mannered politician. The anger he could see on him now, to the point that his face was starting to turn red and the spittle was beginning to fly, suggested that he had been wrong in this assumption.
"An interrogation, Minister. We need information."
"What you need, General, is to leave. Now." Ovillio paused for a few seconds, before his features narrowed in a hard scowl. "I will be sure to take your conduct before the Prime Minister. He would see you stripped of your rank for this."
"He will do no such thing." The General sounded certain. He picked up the makalvari-made pistol that had been on the desk before him. "Do you not see it, Defence Minister? This woman was sent into our midst by the makalvari. This weapon was found inside the illegal drinking establishment near where she was found. The same place this man, this Colonel Sheppard, was also seen leaving." The General glanced over at John, contempt in his eyes. John, however, simply kept a straight face in turn. "An alien weapon, Minister. Carried by alien operatives."
"A means of defending one's self, nothing more," Ovillio stated. "You are reading far too much into this, General."
"I am remaining vigilant, Minister. Something that you and most of your political lackeys have thus far failed to do so." He kept the gun in hand, and now John saw something of that stern façade disappear as General Karn continued. It seemed, with each word, his anger only heightened: "You are allowing alien spies to subvert our nation! These two operatives came here as part of a makalvari plot to undermine Kelowna…"
"You are out of order, General!" Ovillio's voice climbed in volume. Both John and Elsie watched on, both feeling a little out of place here, witnesses to what happens when the civilian government and the military arm could not compromise.
"This gun should be evidence enough…" The General responded, and he motioned with the makalvari gun again.
"Put the gun away!" Ovillio was practically shouting now.
"They are just the spearhead to an alien incursion." General Karn's voice tightened, his eyes widening. John saw something more than simple anger in them, something he might have described as 'unhinged'.
"Put it down, General!"
The General spoke further, yet now his voice was little more than a whisper. Minister Ovillio turned to the guard standing nearby.
"Guard, remove this—"
The Defence Minister did not have a chance to finish. The General spun about, pulled the trigger on the makalvari pistol and sent a high velocity tungsten projectile tearing through the short distance between them. The shot blasted through the guard's chest, spurting blood, before it simply passed straight on through and became embedded in the wall behind him. A puff of concrete dust erupted from the impact, and the guard crumpled into a heap.
Within seconds, the General had turned to the Defence Minister and shot him. This time, he put the round through his head, blood and flecks of bone and even some amount of brain matter erupting out of the ragged exit wound the shot left in the back of his skull. Ovillio fell to the floor suddenly, caught mid-sentence with nary a chance to even realise he was on the verge of death. John and Elsie both ducked on impulse, and now General Karn leered over the both of them.
"Two alien agents, working in a joint Earth and makalvari operation to undermine the Kelownan nation, viciously murdered the Defence Minister in cold blood," Karn said, and he pulled the release mechanism on the pistol. A thin wisp of smoke trailed from the barrel. The power pack stowed within the hilt of the gun fell away, and the General caught it in one deft hand before he stuffed it into his jacket. Somewhere along the way, he had worked out how the pistol functioned. John supposed such things were made to be easy to use, after all.
"Of course, they were both gunned down while trying to escape." General Karn, content with the narrative he had cooked up for himself, threw John the empty pistol. The Colonel caught it, realising then that holding that smoking gun was all part of the General's plan. Karn then pulled his own pistol from his waist holster, a bulky grey metal piece that was presumably the standard-issue sidearm for the Kelownan Army.
"Guards!" The General bellowed, and John reacted. He lunged forwards, shoving the table hard against the General himself. The edge of it caught him in the stomach, making him stumble. John then punched the General hard across the jaw, sending him falling onto his side. He landed in a heap on the floor, his pistol escaping his grasp and clattering across the room.
Two armed guards came racing inside then, and John turned to face the first one. He grappled with the man, catching the automatic rifle he carried before elbowing him across the face. Elsie picked up the chair she had been tied to and swung it, slamming it hard against the head of the second guard. The chair came apart in her hands, with the guard on the receiving end slamming against the nearby wall. Elsie kicked him in the groin, before she delivered a sharp left-hand punch across his jaw. The guard hit the floor, moaning in pain.
John slammed the face of the first guard into the nearby wall, knocking him out and breaking his nose. As soon as he was down, John swept up the guard's fallen rifle. Elsie was already doing the same with the second guard. Shouts and hurried footsteps could be heard out in the hall, growing in volume as the guards making these noises drew nearer.
There was no time to talk, to make plans, only time to act. John leaned out of the doorway, sighting the two guards running down the hall. One of them saw him and raised his weapon, the rifle thundering in the corridor, disturbing the dust on the walls. John ducked and returned the favour, peppering the two oncoming soldiers with bullets. Both twitched and jerked and fell, before John reached over and gave Elsie's arm a tug. Encouragement for her to follow, and the pair left the interrogation room and raced down the corridor and for the stairs.
More guards awaited them at the top of the steps. John came up the flight firing, hardly concerned for the potential consequences their actions here might cause for the makalvari. They had little choice, and somewhere behind them General Karn was rising to his feet. The man's angered, frantic shouts could be heard echoing from behind, that call to action for every guard in earshot. Two foreign terrorists were on the loose, or so it seemed, and both had to be stopped by whatever means necessary.
John threw himself into the upstairs hall, firing the clunky Kelownan automatic rifle as he hit the floor and slid a short distance. The trio of guards further down the hall caught the brunt of it, collapsing under the hail of rounds. Behind him, Elsie turned to the opposite end of the corridor. A door flung open and another pair of armed guards appeared, clad in the standard-issue black of the Kelownan defence force. Elsie cut them down before they had a chance to fire, the weapon's kick considerable when set to full automatic.
John clambered to his feet, heart pounding. He headed back the way he had come with the Defence Minister, with Elsie trailing closely behind. Coming to a door at the end of the hall, he kicked it open, revealing a security checkpoint behind. A desk was here, as was a small office partitioned off with a set of windows. The guard stationed at the desk was already on his feet, pistol raised. John hit him with a volley, slamming the last four rounds of the rifle's magazine through the stunned guard. Another man, an officer of some kind, rose up from behind his desk in the office on the left. John threw himself to the floor as Elsie stepped into the line of fire and hosed the office with bullets, shattering the windows and sending the guard falling backwards upon a bookcase. Files and various other documents were ripped apart under the fire, and the resident officer crumpled into a bloodied heap amongst the mess of torn papers.
More soldiers were storming into the premises. General Karn was amongst them, pistol in hand, his features scrunched into a mean, if determined, scowl. John could hear him shouting at his subordinates, and more of them were thumping down the corridor further behind them. He gestured for Elsie to follow, and along the way he scooped up the pistol that the soldier at the security checkpoint had been carrying. It was the same as the General's, a stocky grey metal thing that served as a comfortable, solid weight within John's grip. He plucked up the couple of spare magazines the soldier had been carrying and hurried on ahead, following the corridor towards one of the main halls within the headquarters building.
The pair emerged onto a walkway overlooking an office area of some sort, with bookshelves crammed full of files and binders lining the upper floor. The staff working inside had since cleared out, and now more soldiers were rushing onto the downstairs level from doors at either side. John did not linger, and instead rushed for the right-hand side, Elsie following. Weapons barked from below, bullets clanging against the metal gantry underfoot. The pair ducked amongst the aisles of shelves, disappearing from sight. The shooting stopped and a momentary silence fell upon the archives.
"What do we do, sir?" Elsie asked him. She had her back to one of the shelving units, and here she checked the magazine in her weapon. John looked to her, mulling over their options. He then looked around the end of the aisle, sighting the arch-shaped windows at the far end of the hall. He supposed there was a chance there, provided these soldiers did not hem them in.
"I have an idea," he said. Elsie looked doubtful, all too familiar that John Sheppard's 'ideas' often involved some haphazard and highly dangerous course of action. Nonetheless, she followed him as he darted out of the aisle, moving from one to another. Soldiers moved around downstairs, and John sighted the General emerge from a door at the back corner. He was bellowing at the soldiers around him, and as the pair moved along the walkway above, Elsie inadvertently knocked a few binders from one of the shelves they passed. They clanked loudly upon the metal, and straight away the soldiers and the General turned in the pair's direction.
"Upstairs!" General Karn shouted, gesturing to his subordinates to hurry. "Upstairs, now!"
Weapons fire sounded from below. Bullets tore into the shelves around them, tearing up documents and sending forth an eruption of torn papers. A pair of soldiers ran out onto the walkway before the windows, weapons raised. John raised his pistol and opened fire, taking one down and sending him falling over the walkway's guardrail. This one landed in a heap upon a desk below, the entire thing breaking in half underneath him. The second gunman let fly with a volley that ripped into the shelves near John, causing him to duck with the pistol raised. He fired wildly, a few of the rounds hitting the arch-shaped window behind the soldier instead. The entire thing shattered, showering glass all over the walkway before it. Elsie paused and raised her own rifle, hitting the soldier ahead with a burst that sent him falling backwards.
There were soldiers rushing up the stairway further behind them. A couple of them started shooting, tearing up the shelves about the pair, unconcerned about the damage they were doing to the military archives. Elsie yelped as a round clipped her lower left leg, a bloody gash opening where the shot had hit her. She stumbled, her rifle flying from her grasp. The weapon clattered over the edge of the walkway, falling towards the floor below. John stopped before the shattered window, looking across a yard crammed with military vehicles. He then looked back, seeing Elsie fall, blood trailing down her leg. He went to run back for her, but there were at least a dozen soldiers rushing down the wide gantry, and one of them opened fire again in his direction. Bullets zipped through the air around him and John looked to Elsie once more. She had at least four of the soldiers on her then, and they turned her over and pushed her hard against the floor, forcing her hands behind her back. John brought up his pistol, pulled the trigger but found that the hammer fell upon an empty chamber. It seemed typical of his luck to have an empty magazine then and there, and with no time to reload he turned around and jumped from the window.
He landed on top of a truck, the canvas cover upon it softening the landing somewhat. It still hurt, still sent a shock of pain shooting up his legs, even as he somersaulted as he landed to better absorb the fall. And then he rolled off of the roof, put his feet to the top of the driver's cabin and quickly climbed down. He darted between the parked trucks to either side of him, reloading the pistol then and cursing himself for having left Elsie behind. He would have to get her, preferably before they started torturing her again. God only knew what these bastards would do to her if she was stuck with them long enough, and that General Karn was certifiably crazy.
Under the morning sun, the breeze a chilly one, John paused by the front-end of a truck and peered around it, towards the gate at the other side of the yard. There were soldiers racing about the perimeter, and from somewhere within the building an alarm sounded. John needed help and he needed serious resources, both of which he would find back at the embassy. He turned around and looked back towards the window he had jumped from, thinking of Elsie. He would get her back, somehow.
Shouting from across the yard alerted him then. He saw the General, accompanied by half a dozen soldiers, running by the gate ahead. They were bundling into cars, and Elsie was there among them, pulled along on her wounded leg. John watched them for a moment, wheels turning in his mind, wondering just what the hell he might do to get her back. He made a mental note of the car, a black four door, before he considered his own escape. He was surrounded by vehicles, so surely at least one of them would work?
Prime Minister Curza Valem had entered the House of Assembly through the rear, secret entrance that was accessible through the network of underground bunkers and tunnels that had been built under the city decades before. It had been a necessary measure when faced with the rival superpowers of Langara, that is, Tirania and the Andari Federation. All three had naquadria bombs aimed at one another, and the threat of the mutual destruction of all three nations always lingered.
The tunnels enabled Prime Minister Valem to avoid the protesting crowds outside and the plague-ridden air, although on that latter point he had been assured time and again that the disease was not airborne. It spread through close physical contact, or so it was believed. Regardless of how it spread, it seemed to bypass some individuals outright. The Prime Minister could only hope to whatever higher power existed that he was one of those lucky people, and yet he could not shake the feeling that those who seemed immune to the plague were being set aside for a different fate altogether. It was nothing more than paranoia that drove this line of thinking, or so he suspected. Paranoia and the conspiracy theories that abounded concerning the origins of the disease and its true purpose.
When he reported to his office this time around, he immediately sensed the change in atmosphere within the lavish, wood-panelled halls of the House of Assembly. There were fewer staff around for one. This was probably to be expected given the continued spread of the plague. Those staff members and representatives present this morning seemed to be on edge more so than in the weeks prior, and the crowd of disgruntled citizens beyond the government compound's perimeter walls had grown substantially. There were also more soldiers around, roaming the halls on what the Prime Minister figured were increased patrols as ordered by the compound's chief of security.
He ventured into his office, expecting a pile of paperwork on his desk. Instead, he found a uniformed Major waiting for him, joined by a pair of regular soldiers. The Major, a young sort whom the Prime Minister did not recognize, turned to him as soon as he entered. They had been waiting here for a while now and had so far done little else during the interim.
"Prime Minister, sir," the Major said, and he took a few steps towards the beleaguered politician. Valem froze, eyes roaming the Major and his subordinates with a mix of confusion and a rapidly rising sense of fear.
"What are you doing in here?" It was not often a military official would venture into his office. If there were any meetings to be had, they would have them in the actual meeting room down the hall. Seeing this Major waiting for him by his desk had set alarm bells ringing within the Prime Minister's head.
"I have orders, sir," the Major stated, and at that moment he pulled from a pocket on his black uniform jacket a folded slip of paper. He handed it to the Prime Minister, who snatched it from him with a frown before unfolding it to reveal the printed text on the page. It did not take him long to read the few short paragraphs, nor did it take long for the implications of what was written there to sink in.
"You can't do this," the Prime Minister growled, and he threw the paper at the Major. The officer did not flinch as it hit him square in the chest, before it simply fluttered to the floor. "These are illegal orders."
"They are supported by the Emergency Securities Act," the Major said. From the way he sounded, he did not much care either way for the legality of the orders given, or of the warrant he had just shown the Prime Minister.
"That act was made by a government in exile." The Prime Minister's voice came out strained, for he attempted to keep his anger in check and was only being partially successful. "It has a dubious foundation, especially now during these times." The Act in question had been implemented by the Kelownan government in-exile during the Ori occupation, when a handful of ministers had kept the Parliament going underground. One of those members had been Jonas Quinn, and from what Prime Minister Valem could recall he had in fact been one of those who had opposed this bill. In essence, it gave the military certain powers during a state of emergency that they previously had not been offered. The wording of the legislation was vague and open to interpretation. It appeared that some of the officers at the top of the Kelownan defence force had decided to bend that interpretation their way.
"The laws are clear. By order of General Vardan Karn, you are to be removed from office for the remainder of the emergency. All power will now be transferred to an elected council of military officials."
"Of which Karn is no doubt the chairman." The Prime Minister rolled his eyes. "The rest of the House will not submit to this."
"They won't have a choice," the Major said, and now his voice did take on a much firmer tone. "Please, Prime Minister. I need to take you in. You will be placed under house arrest until the crisis has ended."
"No, this is not happening. I will not allow it to happen." He stood his ground, and as expected the Major motioned to his two goons. Both approached the Prime Minister, grabbing him by the arms. They were forced behind his back, but the Prime Minister fought against these attempts to subdue him. Acting with a ferocity he had not been aware he contained, he slammed a foot down upon that of the soldier on his right, before he spun around and headbutted the soldier on his left. Both released their grips on him, stunned for a few critical seconds that the Prime Minister took full advantage of. He turned around and ran for the door, well aware that the Major started to give chase behind him.
"The military is taking over!" The Prime Minister charged down the corridor outside, screaming the words at the top of his lungs: "It's a coup! They're taking over, we have to stop them—"
He was halfway down the corridor when two gunshots rang out behind him, one right after the other, the noise loud and pronounced within the corridor's confines. Both bullets hit Prime Minister Curza Valem in the upper back, tearing through his ribcage and his lungs. One struck an artery running down his spine and severed it, bringing forth a rapid torrent of blood. He fell forwards, a shocked expression etched upon his face as he went down. He was dead only a few seconds after he hit the floor, blood having soaked the back of his dark suit. More of it pooled around him, the flow slowing as his own heart stopped beating.
The Major stood just outside the Prime Minister's office, gun in hand and barrel smoking. He had expected the Prime Minister to make a scene, and the General had outright told him to end the man if he did so. Only a few other representatives were present in this corridor, and all appeared appropriately cowed as they emerged from their offices to see the dead Prime Minister. At least they had the good sense to take the change of management without complaint.
Elsie winced as the car went over another speed hump. Her leg was bleeding, messily, and the trousers she wore over it were beginning to stain a deep red. As far as she could tell, it was a flesh wound, a graze really. Nonetheless, it hurt like hell, and it was made all the worse by the fact that she was stuck in the middle of a backseat with two grim-faced Kelownan soldiers, one at each side. And then there was General Karn in the passenger seat, his face jumping from anger to frustration to pure intent. The driver, a Lieutenant of some variety, was speeding them through the mostly empty streets as if the hounds of hell itself were on his tail.
"Faster, damn it!" The General shouted the words almost in his ear, and Elsie saw the Lieutenant wince slightly. He obeyed the instructions, pushing the car even harder. They were accompanied by another vehicle that tailed along a short distance behind, and from what Elsie could see this one was filled with similarly grim soldiers as those with her.
"What do you want from me?" Elsie practically snarled the words, and the General shot her a mean glance. Her voice was filled with anger and pain, and another sharp turn caused her and those soldiers either side of her to sway suddenly. Blood was trickling onto the carpet underfoot, and she was beginning to become increasingly worried about the wound. "I'm not going to sign your damn confession…"
"Forget the confession," Karn interjected. "You're insurance now, Lieutenant. Your friends won't touch us if we have you hostage."
"That's where you're wrong…"
"Maybe, but it doesn't matter. I have contingencies in place. Soon enough, your friends from Earth and the makalvari will no longer be welcome here on Langara." He glanced past her and through the rear window. "You and your friend only confirmed what I suspected, of course. You are nothing but foreign terrorists, aliens intent on undermining this nation. You and your makalvari friends will pay."
He was worried John was chasing them. Elsie knew he would stop at nothing to get her back. If there was any one thing you could be certain about John Sheppard, it was that he did not leave anyone behind, no matter what. And those who were lost he would always come for, even if it meant disobeying orders. In the meantime, she had to do all she could to either escape or simply hinder the enemy.
"Where are we going?" Elsie asked him. General Karn gave her a firm look that suggested some level of sheer incredulity.
"You are in no position to ask questions." He spoke sharply, offering no room for argument. "And if you know what's good for you, you will shut your mouth."
Elsie wanted to say more, but the soldier on her left struck her with the butt-end of his rifle. It was an awkward and somewhat weak blow, made so by the cramped confines within which they sat. The stock connected with her gut and despite the lack of strength behind the hit, it was still enough to make her lurch forward. She had been caught wholly off-guard, and she swore under her breath at the sharp stab of pain that went through the muscles of her stomach.
The driver kept them speeding along, headed for the city limits. Elsie was left to stew in the pain of her bleeding leg and of her uncertainty towards whatever lay ahead for her. All the while she wondered if she would be able to hold out long enough for the others to rescue her.