Armen Gharabegian - Protocol 7

He clenched the pistol so tightly in his right hand that it shook the barrel less than an inch from Nika’s neck. He couldn’t focus his anger to formulate what he was about to say.

“Why?” He asked.

She did not speak.

“Is it true what Oliver said?” he asked her, pressing firmly against the trigger with his index finger.

She nodded.

He fought the will to just shoot her. It was too easy. Too painless. How could she have done this, he thought to himself.

Then suddenly she spoke. “Max, Oliver was right. I had no choice. But I am prepared to die, so pull the trigger.”

Clenching his teeth, he asked, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

It was getting harder and harder to fight the urge to not take her life. “You mean to tell me you didn’t have a choice but to take someone’s life?”

“I can find Leon, Max. I know where he is. Simon will never find him. He belongs to my society.”

“What society? What the fuck is going on?” Max said, wondering if she was trying to manipulate him again.

Then Nika began to explain. She told him everything. She explained how she knew Oliver, how she had known Simon all her life, but had only watched him from a distance. She was never allowed to meet him. She explained the reason why Oliver had to come to Antarctica, and why he had betrayed his own society. She spoke about the extraterrestrial devices less than a few hundred feet below them. She only looked up once, and noticed Max had just sat down and eased up on the pistol. His expression was of complete disbelief and shock at what had just been revealed to him.

“So what will happen now?” He asked in a somber tone.

“I can find him, Max. I know where Leon will hide. If you let me live, I promise I will find him.”

He sat speechless for a long moment staring at Oliver’s dead body.

He had a choice to make, and he had to make it now. What if she finds and kills Simon? What if all of this is a lie, he asked himself. He had to trust his gut, as he always did, and it told him that it made sense as ridiculous as all of it sounded.

“Go. Get the fuck out of my sight before I change my mind.”

Nika didn’t hesitate. She pulled herself up quickly, whispering, “Thank you.”

Max’s eyes did not move. “I’ll find you. Trust me. If you find a way to escape this hell, you need to deliver on your promise. If you don’t, I will still find you. But for now-now you’re on your own,” he said.

She glanced at him for a split second and then disappeared into the hallway that led toward the direction that Simon had just escaped. Max continued staring at the only father he knew. What Nika had told him resonated through his mind. What the hell will we do now? he thought to himself. I know if Simon reaches the surface, we will leave this hell. Just get up there you bastard.

* * *

Simon’s vision was fading. He had lost too much blood. With his face stuck to the icy floor, he barely saw the figure of Blackburn standing over him. He heard the words as if they emerged from a shadow-cold, unfeeling.

“You pathetic son of a bitch,” Blackburn said. “You thought this was about your father. You have no fucking clue how big this is. You have no idea what you have done, and now you are going to pay for it.”

Simon kept his eyes open, barely long enough to recognize the figure that stood behind Blackburn in the distance.

Blackburn’s finger curled around the pistol’s trigger-

— and two bullets hit him from behind. He still stood erect, still alive, for one long impossible moment, then fell like a statue on top of Simon. His hand convulsed as he fell and the pistol fired. The bullet slashed through the air less than three inches from Simon’s head.

Even though he was nearly unconscious himself, Simon recognized the figure that had killed Blackburn. He felt shock, confusion, awe, as he peered through the pain at Nika, standing a hundred feet away.

I’m next, he thought.

He had no more strength to fight. But somehow he managed to pull himself to his feet and confront her, face her, look straight at her as she turned to him.

He was ready to take the bullet.

She did not flinch. She held her aim for a long, long moment, and then lowered her rifle and waited for Simon to enter the Raptor.

He stared at her. He thought his life would be taken. But apparently in that moment, Nika had decided not to kill him.

He climbed the stairs more slowly than ever and entered the cockpit. As he passed through the hatch, he looked back once more at Nika’s cold blue eyes. They locked with his, one last time.

He pulled his body into the menacing machine and started to buckle himself in. As the last latch on the safety belts engaged, the cockpit hatch began to hiss, automatically pressurizing the cockpit. His seat automatically reclined, putting him into a lying position with his legs forward.

He felt as if he would lose consciousness at any moment. Then the voice command module in the Raptor spoke.

“Diagnostics complete. Ready for detachment. Course set for zero altitude.”

“-153…-79…+347…Confirm coordinates, confirm ignition.”

All Simon had to do was speak the words. He took a deep breath and forced the words out.

“Coordinates confirmed,” he rasped. “Ignition confirmed.”

Eight audible beeps later, the Raptor exploded forward, thrusting its massive form into the cavernous tunnel ahead. It shook the surrounding ice like a fighter jet.

The G-force almost knocked Simon out in the first five seconds. All he could feel were the vibrations in the interior of the cockpit as the force pressed him against his seat like a falling stone wall.

* * *

Four hundred eighty feet behind, Blackburn barely opened his eyes. He felt the pain in his back where the bullet had struck, but the bulletproof clothing he wore had saved his life. Again, he thought grimly. And probably not for the last time.

He did not have the strength to move, but it didn’t matter. He had already lost the Raptor, he knew that. He would have to wait for an evac team in any event, assuming one could get there.

We’ll get him on the outside, he told himself. We’ll get him.

And only then did he hear the woman’s voice-deep, accented, cutting through the fading vibration of the disappearing Raptor. He saw no one, but he heard.

“Goodbye, my brother.”

Then she disappeared-toward the elevator shaft.

* * *

The Raptor blew through the smooth-sided coring tunnel at 135 miles per hour. It started accelerating upward as the pitch increased to more than forty degrees, curving upward toward the top of the ice continent.

Simon’s eyesight began to fade. He felt consciousness slipping away as he moved at breakneck speed.

* * *

One thousand feet above where Simon was now traveling, Hayden felt a sudden vibration below his feet as he struggled to help Samantha.

“Come on Sam,” he pleaded, hauling at her one more time. “We’ve got to keep moving before we freeze to death.”

Samantha had no more strength; the blast had nearly killed her, but she was not ready to die.

She forced herself up and barely recognized Hayden. Much to her own surprise, she was glad to be alive.

He held her for a moment as the recent memory of Ryan’s death took hold of her emotions. Holding her tightly in his arms, Hayden said, “We’ve got to keep moving before we freeze Samantha. With the Spector destroyed, I have to find a way to get us out of here.” He looked at the communication device strapped on his wrist, and realized Max was trying to find them. The message read:

Stay where you are. Coming toward you.

Hayden was glad that Max was alive. He spoke softly into the device. “We’ll wait for you at the encampment.”