Jonathan Bond - The Terminus experiment

Sinunu knew they were at the rear of the compound, a direct one-eighty from the front gate. She also knew this was where the compound’s best defenses were concentrated. She just hoped that whoever de Vries was trusting on the inside had taken care of things as promised. If not, then this was going to get real ugly, real quick.

She strapped her bow to her back and bounded across the shallow ditch, and up to the closest rock section. The rock was mostly jagged volcanic, and she scaled it quickly.

As she went up, the flood directly above her went dark. Cresting the top, she got a view of the first fifty-meter expanse they were going to have to cross. She was glad Sandman had been able to deactivate the miniguns. The space was uniformly flat, with absolutely no cover, and nothing to stop the miniguns from laying down an incredible lethal crossfire. Across the distance, she could see the second fence. The far one was completely mesh, and was sure to be electrified.

As she started to swing over, a crawling instinct made her freeze, hugging the top of the rock wall, the concertina wire digging into the small of her back.

Just to her left, about thirty meters out, something moved. She watched it out of the corner of her eye, and for just a moment, she couldn’t figure out what it was or what it was doing.

As it moved closer, she felt a sense of unreality, as well as something very close to shocked amusement. It was a dog. That much should have been obvious, but it was the distended head that had her confused. The thing was wired up, some tech contraption attached to its head. Then she realized that the creature was busy chasing its own tail. At any other time it might have been funny.

Growling viciously, the animal moved like a dervish anxiously snapping at its tail with each spin. It wasn’t until it came a little closer that Sinunu realized that it had obviously caught its tail more than once. The tail was a ripped, bloody mess, mangled with each bite the dog delivered.

She shuddered, suddenly afraid. What had they done to this animal to make it mutilate itself like that?

Suddenly, the dog straightened, growling low in its throat, and sniffing in Sinunu’s direction. Moving silently, she slipped the crossbow off her back and was just starting to aim, when the dog barked once and began to charge her, a dirty brown streak covering the dusty ground in space-eating bounds.

Moving as quickly as possible, she took aim, when a swirl of what she had mistaken for dust condensed directly in front of the animal. It was de Vries.

Without a hitch, the dog changed its angle of attack and leapt for de Vries’ throat. As it reached the top of its arc, something seemed to sprout from its throat, a barbed cybertongue that swept in a right curve straight for de Vries’ head. With a graceful sidestep too fast for even Sinunu to follow, de Vries ducked the lashing tongue and snagged the dog out of mid-air, one-handed.

A truncated whoff came from the animal as de Vries snapped the animal’s neck with ease.

Dropping the still-twitching carcass to the ground. de Vries looked up at her and smiled slightly. Then he beckoned her with one hand.

Sinunu thought about de Vries saying he was more powerful than any of them could imagine. Somehow, this display of that power made her feel less comfortable, not more.

She swung over the top of the fence, then gently lowered herself to the ground. Checking her one-eighty as far as she could see, Sinunu detected no movement. She knew that there were all sorts of nasty surprises dotting the extent of this no man’s land, but hopefully the animal guard was the only one Sandman hadn’t been able to counteract.

Satisfied that everything was as calm as it could be under the circumstances, she approached the wire mesh section of the fence, and waved Flak forward.

Slinging the Vindicator over his shoulder, the big troll hunkered down at the fence and began quickly cutting. Within a second he had a hole big enough for him to squeeze through and plenty large enough for everybody else.

Everybody moved through, Truxa giving Sinunu an anxious wink as she stepped lightly through.

As Sinunu turned to look at de Vries again, her tacticom crackled. “Okay, kiddies,” came Sandman’s soft voice. “Now that we’ve paid admission to the circus, it’s time for the obstacle course.”

Flak’s voice cut in. “Any more guard dogs?”

“They’re everywhere, boss. Everywhere except here. This is the only section not on hot alert. I guess de Vries’ contact has a bit of pull. That dog seemed to be more for show than anything else.”

With hand gestures, Flak lined everybody up. Sinunu in the lead, followed by Rachel. Then Truxa and Flak. Sinunu smiled a little to see that Flak didn’t even bother with de Vries. Evidently, he thought as she did. The vamp didn’t need any of them, and therefore, they didn’t need to bother themselves about him.

“Sin Sister,” said Sandman, “you got to be precise about this, or you’re going to wind up dead, you scan? I’ve shut down everything I could, but I found a schematic for mods on this place, and not everything is hooked up to the system. So just do everything I say, and I should be able to lead you through this mess just fine. If something goes wrong, you’ll hear a small whine of trap doors opening. After that, you’re hosed.”

Sinunu smiled inside her hood. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sandy.”

“Any time, Sin. All right, if the girl scoot troop is ready to roll, take eight steps forward from where you are right now.”

Sinunu turned to Rachel, and leaned close. “Just do what I do, and step where I step, and keep as quiet as a mouse. Comprende?”

Rachel looked back at her, those blue eyes wide with excitement, but she nodded.

Sinunu turned back to the no man’s land, took a deep breath and started forward.

For the next six minutes, the group tracked a convoluted course across the ground toward the second barrier. At one point, their meandering trek took them within just a few meters of the dead dog. Sinunu took one look at it, then turned away. Whoever had modified that dog deserved to die slowly and painfully.

After what seemed like hours of being exposed and vulnerable, the group finally reached the opposite wall.

“Now that was fun, wasn’t it, kids?”

“All right, Sandman” came Flak’s voice. “Everybody’s a bit tense out here, so just get on with it.”

“Gotcha. Well, the obstacle course is over. Now it’s time for the fun house. Flak, you’ll want to handle this. The fence is electrified, and its power source is in a closed circuit operated from a generator up near the front gate, so go with plan bravo.”

Sinunu dug into the pack at her waist, and pulled out the thin cables with wire jaws at each end. As Flak moved past her, she tossed him the cables, which he snagged over his shoulder without looking.

Sinunu immediately took up position watching their six o’clock. Truxa came up beside her. “Something’s very wrong here,” Truxa said.

Sinunu didn’t take her eyes off their rear, but asked, “You mean aside from the obvious?”

“Yes. This place is protected from magic just as heavily as it is from things mundane, but for all my effort, I’ve only been able to detect minimal life here. It looks more like a tomb than a research facility. The astral is so incredibly cloudy and polluted.”

Sinunu felt the hackles on her neck stand high. “Toxics?”

Truxa shook her head. “This would be a perfect place for them, but someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to keep anything like that out of here. There’s magical energy of incredible proportions being used here. Someone with phenomenal talent and a very refined style has been doing things I can’t even begin to guess at. This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies.”