“Call me Nemesis,” the speaker’s disembodied voice said, interrupting her thoughts. “I am your judge, jury, and executioner. Remember that I am always watching.”
With an electronic buzz, the bars around her began to descend into the floor. Even if she had considered hiding inside the cell until the killing stopped, that possibility disappeared along with her cage. As she watched her enclosure sink down, she realized she would have to engage. Eventually, she would find Toro.
And he would either be her greatest ally or her worst enemy.
CHAPTER 27
Dani made an instant shift from strategic to tactical mode. Rather than concern herself with the big picture behind her current situation, she had to focus on her immediate survival.
She performed a quick assessment of her physical state. Other than thirst, she felt well. She had no weapons but still had her tactical hair clip and combat boots, which could prove useful.
The area was lit by a series of bare bulbs with wrought metal covers. She explored, skimming her fingertips along the sides of her cell to feel its surface. The walls, ceiling, and floor appeared to be made of poured concrete. She took a few more steps to examine the open door in the center of one wall. It was metal and painted battleship gray, giving the space the feel of a submarine.
She used both hands to grasp the wheel in the middle of the exit door, thinking to close off the room and stay inside. The latch was locked in the open position. Their captor—Nemesis—must be able to open and close all internal doors remotely, and he wasn’t going to let any of them avoid confrontation.
She refused to simply hunker down and wait for someone to find and kill her. Without any alliances except her tenuous one with Toro—which might not even exist—she would have to rely on herself. Time to Ranger up and get on with the mission.
During RASP, each trainee had been dropped alone into forests or mountains and forced to find their way out. To pass, she had to prioritize survival while making her escape. This situation was different in that she had no sense of direction, time of day, or distance. Also, there was the added fun of having a bunch of people actively trying to kill her.
The first order of business was a weapon to defend herself. While she searched for that, she would look for water. She could survive weeks without food but would become dangerously dehydrated in days. Next she had to make a note of any safe places to rest if this scenario went on for a long time. She knew that staying awake for days on end would lead to slower reaction times, then hallucinations, and eventually death. In Ranger school, she had learned to get by on as little as one or two hours, sleeping in almost any position.
After that, whatever tools or first aid their captor had hidden would be a logical target. In an environment that was completely under his control, anything could be valuable. Nemesis had mentioned a map, which would provide critical intel about the surroundings. She would be able to guess where others might be hiding or where she might find the exit. In the meantime, she would create a mental map to orient herself.
This so-called trial by combat would test their survival, adaptive, cognitive, and fighting skills while under pressure. Thanks to Uncle Sam, she had extensive training in each of these areas under highly stressful conditions. Except for Toro and the Colonel, she knew next to nothing about the rest of them. She decided to leverage the one component of the equation she could control.
Herself.
She took up a position beside the door and peeked around the opening. The gray corridor was empty in both directions and eerily quiet. What should she do the first time she ran across one of the other captives?
If possible, she would try talking first. See if they would be willing to form an alliance. This approach would serve to either garner a partner or inform her about her prospects going forward. If they attacked, she would defend herself, using the least amount of force necessary to incapacitate them, then leave them behind. This put her at an extreme disadvantage. She would fight with the intention not to cause grievous bodily injury or death, while they would do everything in their power to disable or to kill her.
What if she saw Toro? Under these circumstances, was he a friendly or a hostile? Without any clue, she opted to treat him the same as the others until she got a read on him.
Plan in place, she headed through the open doorway and confronted her first decision. Did she go right or left? Without warning, the lights in the corridor to her left went out.
Nemesis was obviously watching and had made it clear he wanted her to take the right corridor. She was tempted to defy him and go left, but walking into total darkness without night-vision equipment or a flashlight would be suicidal. Besides, he might punish her for her defiance, and she wouldn’t see it coming if she was stumbling in the dark.
With the sense that she was being herded like cattle toward a slaughterhouse, she began making her way down the corridor to the right.
CHAPTER 28
Nemesis turned to the bank of video monitors mounted to the wall. Six rows of five screens displayed thirty separate video feeds. Every nook and cranny of the subterranean structure and an acre of ground above it was under constant surveillance. There was no place for anyone to hide.
Nemesis had not built the facility, which dated back to the mid-twentieth century. After being abandoned for decades, the long-forgotten structure had proved to be the perfect place to retrofit to create a realistic virtual training space for a potential DOD contract.
Total climate control had been part of the facility’s original design. Rooms and corridors were sealed off with reinforced blast doors. Lighted signs and an intercom system were built in, as was the observation system from the control room near the surface.
After the site had been purchased, an overhaul and upgrade of the interior had taken three years. Certain employees and subcontractors, each with ironclad nondisclosure agreements, had worked on various components of the facility. None of them had seen the entire setup or knew of its full capabilities. The cutting-edge technology contained inside was a closely guarded secret. Corporate espionage always loomed as a threat, and this facility could revolutionize the way troops were trained. An exclusive defense contract could garner as much as a billion dollars.
Renovations had included pipes in the vents designed to deliver colored smoke for gas-mask training. Adding a component that enabled military commanders to alter scenarios in real time in response to the actions of combatants had finally come online in the past six months. The new capabilities allowed leaders to test both teamwork and individual performance by requiring combatants to solve problems in the field, working separately or in groups.
All systems were go, and it had been time to prepare a demonstration that would make everyone in the Pentagon salivate. Remote virtual training let soldiers guide avatars through endless variations of scenarios from any military base equipped with the technology to connect to this facility. Personnel could also learn by watching highly trained soldiers go through scenarios as avatars wearing the newly redesigned suits.
No more massive field exercises. No more wasting time, money, and other precious resources. This was a new way to train tens of thousands of personnel with zero downtime, zero injuries, and the ability to adapt to any environment or circumstance in a matter of minutes.
But two months ago, Nemesis had been blindsided by a discovery that changed everything, including the intended purpose behind the virtual training facility. Now the confidentiality involved in its creation had made the space perfect for an entirely different audience and a new plan.
A plan of revenge.
Nemesis had to act quickly and had managed to adjust the facility, converting the scenarios from nonlethal to fully lethal. The first test had been designed to release colored vapor unless the correct answer was entered on the keypad. Mixing in poisonous gas had been easy, considering the HVAC system had originally been created to prevent and disperse leaked airborne pollutants. The keypad had been rigged to spray paint balls. Substituting shrapnel had been a fast process, but some of the other obstacles had proved to be more challenging to convert, especially those that involved biohazardous chemicals. The Colonel, who had been more than accommodating in providing access to these items, had no idea he was bringing about his own demise when he delivered them to the facility over a month ago. Nemesis had found that people who had gotten used to operating above the law thought they were untouchable. The Colonel and his cronies were about to learn that no one was untouchable.