Kane Gilmour - Ragnarok

“It’s even possible that the laws of physics are different there. Human beings are designed to perceive things in only three dimensions. An alternate dimension might simply be a fourth dimension that co-exists but is separated from our own simply because we can’t perceive or experience it. Those that subscribe to this theory believe it to be the root of most ghost stories and poltergeists-glimpses into mirror dimensions caused by gravitational anomalies. Of course, that’s irrelevant. The point is, a human being might view an alternate dimension in a distorted, or skewed way, because our perceptions are limited to experiencing three dimensions controlled by our universe’s laws of physics.”

“I saw something on the other side of that portal,” King said through the speakers in the room.

“You said it was mostly dark, right?” Aleman asked. “If Black Five is right, perhaps light doesn’t work there like it does in our dimension.”

“Or it was just night,” Black Five said with a twitch of his lips.

King sighed. “Right.”

“What does all this information give us? What are we dealing with?” General Keasling’s voice was gruffer than normal, the grav-elly scraping of his voice reminded Pierce of just how long it had been since they had each slept.

“It’s all moot, actually,” Deep Blue interjected. “We need to find a way to stop the portals from opening or to stop the creatures from coming through them.”

“On that front, I have some ideas,” Aleman said. “Fogg and Pierce and I feel convinced from 10 ^th — century evidence that the planet has seen these creatures before. How many times, I can’t say, but there is a historical record. We believe the creatures are what the Norse first called dire wolves. We’re still working on finding out how and when the portals closed in the past, as well as efficient ways to kill them.”

Bishop’s meaty voice came through the speaker next. “They can be killed. They’re just fast. Enclosed spaces or battlefields with obstacles are our best bet. If they get up to speed, they’re hard to hit.”

Aleman spoke up again. “And their roar is devastating.”

“Any theories on that?” Deep Blue asked.

“Just one,” Aleman said. “Infrasound.”

“Which is?” King asked.

“Any sound lower than twenty hertz, which is right at the fringe of what human ears can hear. For us to hear it, the sound pressure would have to be significant.”

“It’s significant,” Knight added.

“At the right volume, we would actually be able to feel the sound as much as hear it. Several studies I found, published and unpublished, suggest that a seventeen-hertz infrasound, with enough punch, can induce strong feelings of fear. Test subjects reported powerful anxiety, extreme sorrow, revulsion and terror. Physical symptoms ranged from goose bumps to loose bowels, which might have also been a physical effect caused by the low frequency vibrations, rather than an emotional response. As for the hallucinations, they’re probably caused by the adrenaline and other chemicals dumped into the body by the fear response, but it’s worth noting that the resonant frequency of the human eye, according to NASA, is eighteen hertz. Pegging someone with this frequency can cause optical illusions, visual hallucinations and are one of the leading theories for ghost sightings. If they’re pegging multiple frequencies at once, the effects match.”

“That sounds about right,” Knight added. “Good to know I’m not a wuss.”

King, who was the only field team member to be unaffected by the dire wolf roar, was unperturbed. “So if we hear it, we’ll either fight harder or run away? Not that big of a problem.”

“Oh, but it is, King,” Sara Fogg stepped toward the center of the room to speak. Pierce noted that her eyes were still baggy, but her face had come alive at a chance to participate in the conversation on a medical topic, with which she could relate. He also noted that she remembered to use his operational callsign, instead of calling him Jack. “In a life-threatening situation, the human ‘fight-or-flight’ response involves an involuntary increased heart rate, increased blood flow to the muscles, pupil dilation and a whole host of other symptoms. You won’t be at your fighting best, and what’s worse, adrenaline dumps into your lungs, your liver, kidneys and heart. With the dire wolf roar activating such a heightened fight-or-flight, your heart could seize up with adrenaline and crash. You’d drop dead just like with the Brugada strain from a few years ago. The dire wolf roar can actually scare you to death.”

Deep Blue cleared his throat. “Lewis, you said you have a plan for dealing with the dire wolves?”

Aleman replied without hesitation. “Yes sir, I think we should nuke them.”

London, England

3 November, 1600 Hrs

“ That’s not good.”

Bishop tilted his head to the side and looked out the open door of the Crescent, as it hovered on its thrumming VTOL engines. Rain lashed the late afternoon London sky, but both he and Knight had a perfect view of the River Thames and the 443-foot tall white Ferris wheel, known as the London Eye. The bizarre cantilevered support struts and several of the steel tie rods of the structure were hidden inside a large crackling dire wolf portal that covered over a fourth of the surface of the wheel. Both Bishop and Knight understood that when the portal winked out, it would take the central hub of the giant structure with it.

But that wasn’t what had caused Bishop’s comment.

Despite the lousy overcast weather, the ride-one of the largest tourist attractions in Europe that saw 3.5 million visitors a year-had been full when the portal appeared out of thin air. As the Crescent moved the men into position above the wheel, they saw hundreds of passengers from the remaining egg-shaped capsules around the edges of the wheel. A storm of brightly colored tourists attempted to climb down the superstructure after having freed themselves from their steel-and-Plexiglas prisons. Some were still trapped in their capsules. They frantically hammered on the glass as they watched the immense sphere of pulsing light engulf the wheel like Pac Man gobbling up tasty snacks. Bishop noted that some of the people were leaping to the river far below them from the upper reaches of the rim, almost 400 feet above the water.

Others leapt off the ride on the other side-to the concrete pedestrian path and the trees, which were turning dark red from the frequent human impacts.

The panicked tourists fled in terror as the portal disgorged its swarm of milky white occupants. Hundreds of dire wolves leapt out of the yellow wall of light. Many of them lunged up the London Eye’s struts and scampered across its surface like manic children on a playground.

“Get me close, Black One. Now!” Bishop shouted into his helmet microphone to the pilot of the Crescent and readied a rappelling line at the door. Their plan had been to keep the creatures at bay as much as possible while the Ministry of Defense arranged to get a small nuclear device to them. Domenick Boucher had handled convincing the US President of the plan to drop a nuclear device inside a portal with a timer. The device would be shut off by remote control if the timer ticked down and the portal hadn’t shut. If it did close, as all of the portals had done so far, then the device would detonate, hopefully stopping the dire wolf incursion. A device would be attempted both here in London and in New York. The US President convinced the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom only an hour before the Crescent arrived. As far as both the US and the UK were concerned, Bishop and Knight were US Delta members, acting on US orders-not independent operators.