Callsign: King II- Underworld

King had none of those advantages tonight. No Deep Blue, no eye in the sky, no backup. And perhaps worst of all, no time.

He spent several minutes studying the area surrounding the cinderblock structure that had been the final destination for the driver of the SUV. There didn’t appear to be any security cameras or motion sensors, and he saw no evidence of a security patrol. Although he could have been wrong about any one of those observations, there was nothing more to be gained through further surveillance.

“I’d much rather do this alone,” he told Nina, then forestalled her immediate protest with a raised hand. “I think we both know that it’s not a good idea to split up. But you’re going to have to follow my lead and do everything I say.”

She nodded, but was clearly irked at being relegated to the role of tagalong.

King left the Humvee concealed behind a low hill and they set off on foot across the open ground, a distance of about half a mile. They moved low and slow at first, with King in the lead, constantly scanning for trip wires and other early warning detection systems. As they got closer though, King realized his caution was unnecessary.

The building he now thought of as the Bluelight Facility, might have actually had a working security system at one time, possibly even earlier in the night, but precautions designed to keep out human intruders had been of little use in turning back a wave of Mogollon Monsters.

The eight-foot fence surrounding the building had been ripped apart like the wrapping on an eight-year old’s Christmas present. Beyond the fence line, were the shattered remains of two passenger cars, and King saw that the white SUV had also taken a pounding. There were holes in the concrete wall, some decorated with snags of long dark human hair and streaks of blood. The metal door leading inside was still on its hinges, but the exterior doorknob had been ripped off, and it was evident that the panel had been repeatedly hammered with fists and feet.

King led the way through the wreckage and cautiously pulled the door open. The entry foyer beyond was dark, but judging by the lack of damage, it appeared that the creatures had not breached the interior of the building.

A strip of light, barely visible to the naked eye but glowing bright in the night vision display, shone from beneath a door at the end of the corridor. King switched off the monocular, shouldered his carbine, and stealthily approached the door.

There were voices beyond—at least two people—engaged in a conversation. He twisted the doorknob slowly and opened it just a crack.

“—all left when those things attacked. It’s just me now.” The voice was male—probably Copeland, King thought—and his tone was almost frantic.

“Are you able to verify a direct link between this incursion and activation of the Bluelight generator?” This voice was female and considerably louder, filling the room. King realized right away that it was issuing from a speaker, but there was something odd about the person’s speech pattern. There was a barely perceptible lag between each word, and an almost total lack of emotion.

“A link?” Copeland replied incredulously. “Every time we fire the damn thing up, those creatures show up and start killing everyone. What more evidence do you need?”

“There is an eighty-two point one percent probability that these events are correlated. However, until the mechanism explaining the connection is understood, the experiments must continue.”

“It sounds like one of those automated phone call systems,” Nina whispered in King’s ear.

King had already figured that out. Computer voice technology had come a long way from the synthesized speech depicted in movies like the classic War Games. Modern software could almost instantly piece together sentences from prerecorded words, assembling them like fragments cut out of a dictionary and pasted onto a sheet of paper, but there were limits to the technology; it was impossible for the software to mimic the natural tone and inflection of a real person. But it was something else the voice had said that caused a huge piece of the puzzle to fall into place.

Oblivious to his revelation, Nina continued. “It sounds like they know that whatever they’re doing here is driving the Mogollons crazy.”

“Shhh.”

“No, no, no! We don’t dare turn it on again.”

“The objective cannot be achieved until the external threat is mitigated,” the female voice replied blandly. “You must accelerate the timetable. Drawing the hostiles into the open will provide military assets with an opportunity to eliminate the threat permanently.”

“Those things wiped out your precious military assets. Dozens of soldiers are missing…probably dead. The general blames me for that.”