A. Colucci - The Colony

Paul pulled the gun from his belt. “I just have to be persuasive.”

“Without bullets?”

“He doesn’t know that.”

“I’ll have the helicopter crew come back for Cameron. He’s in bad shape.”

They looked back at the agent, slumped against the wall, eyes wide open.

He was dead.

KENDRA REACHED THE DOORWAY of the computer room, out of breath and gasping. Jeremy was staring at a screen image, mouth gaping and eyes bulging with an icy expression of alarm. Only once had Kendra seen him in that state. A supercolony of ants had launched an all-out attack on Edwards Air Force Base, eluding all his computer programs.

When she came through the door he shuddered and said, “I have bad news.”

Kendra almost laughed at the idea that things could get any worse.

“They’re coming,” he said.

“Who?”

“ Them. ”

A gray chunk of underground Manhattan was spinning in 3-D. The image was made up of swirling radio waves that arced around a network of pipes, cables and sewers. Anything metal or concrete was shaded in blue. Gaps and voids, such as buried subways tunnels, dried-up streams and riverbeds, were indicated in violet.

“The bunker’s ground-penetrating-radar system,” Kendra guessed, squinting at the image.

“Right,” Jeremy answered, completely absorbed in the graphic. “It’s fantastic. Far more advanced than any radar I’ve ever seen.” The cross section of the earth was created through the transmission of low-frequency radio waves that penetrated out from the bunker walls into the ground. Whenever the signal hit an object, it would bounce back to the receiving antenna to create a picture. The high resolution and 3-D were achieved by systematically collecting multiple lines of data to form a tomogram, a very clear image of the earth surrounding the bunker. If anyone or anything tried to dig its way toward the bunker, the radar would pick it up.

Kendra had more pressing issues. “Jeremy, we need an outside line. Can you reach the Pentagon?”

“Not at the moment,” he replied, still lost in the floating bedrock. “The Internet went down half an hour ago.”

She closed her eyes and exhaled. “We have a problem.”

Kendra summed up the events of the last half hour, including her suspicion that Colonel Garrett had killed the general and put Operation Colony Torch back into play.

“Unfortunately, that’s not our biggest concern right now,” Jeremy told her. “These are the last recorded images taken by the GPR.” With a slide of his finger, the angle dipped farther below the earth’s surface.

Kendra could clearly see the massive silhouette of the bunker in blue. Directly above was a glowing green blob, shifting and changing shape, contracting like a giant amoeba.

“Because of their rapid movement, the ants are easy to isolate. You can see the swarms moving frame by frame.” Jeremy zoomed out. “The darkest green is where the ants are most dense and they disperse toward the edges.” From the surface of the earth, hundreds of quivering tentacles grew and retracted, spreading downward. “They start to get fuzzy where the radar gets weak. If you follow these two subcolonies, here and here, they seem to be moving in our direction.”

“The ants are headed for the bunker?”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“I thought it’s supposed to be ant-proof.”

“Nothing in this city is ant-proof. Most of these walls are still bedrock and dirt.”

Kendra looked puzzled. “So the Siafu Moto can dig three hundred feet into the ground?”

Jeremy shrugged. “Mostly they live in pipes and sewers, subways and tunnels. Their connective nests are fairly shallow.”

“So how will they reach us?”

“Turtle Creek.”

“ Turtle Creek ?”

Jeremy pulled up another map of underground Manhattan and placed it over the 3-D image taken by the GPR. The Viele map, created in 1874 by Colonel Egbert Viele, was the only known map of Manhattan’s underground creeks and streams. It remained the bible for structural engineers, who had to reference the drawing carefully before a drop of concrete could be poured anywhere in the city.

Jeremy pointed to a long, twisted vein across the island. “New York is full of these underground riverbeds, mostly dried up and cavernous. Turtle Creek connects the East River to Turtle Bay, a subterranean river that snakes through half the city, all the way up to Riverside Park. It’s located right beneath the UN, practically over our heads.”

“How fast are they moving?”

“From these last images, it seems the closer they get, the faster they go.”

“They couldn’t possibly know we’re here.”

“Unless they’re being drawn to a massive amount of electricity.”

Kendra nodded at the bunker image. “The electrical field. It’s calling them right to us… how long do we have?”

“It’s hard to predict. Maybe an hour until they hit the ventilation system.”

“That gives us time to get to the roof.” She grabbed his wrist. “Let’s go.”

“Hold on. They might return to the surface if I shut down the power in the bunker.”

“You can do that?”

Jeremy frowned, as if insulted. “I can shut down the control center, the air-conditioning, all the lights and computers.” He thought a moment. “Yes, I’m sure they would head back to the surface.”

She checked her watch. “We don’t have time for that. The last flight out of here is in eighteen minutes.”

“You’re the boss.” Jeremy grabbed his briefcase as she started for the door.

Kendra made it to the door and froze. Tiny hairs prickled along the back of her neck. She looked to the ceiling.

Kercha kercha kercha kercha kercha

Jeremy stopped too. “What’s that?”

She stepped into the hallway. White tiles came alive in a mosaic of Siafu Moto. They rounded the bend and filled the hallway, spilled from the ceiling air vents. Kendra staggered backward in mute horror and slammed the door.

“They’re here,” she told Jeremy. “The hall is infested.”

He looked completely bewildered. “Oh… I was a bit off in my timing.… Let’s, uh, think about this.”

“Think fast!”

“There might be a way,” Jeremy said, pulling up a blueprint of the bunker. “I’m not sure why they built this tunnel—probably storage or some kind of vent—but it appears to be solid steel and as close to ant-proof as we’ll get. It winds around the entire bunker.” He highlighted the structure in red and traced it with his finger, talking fast and furious. “This is where we are, here, and if you keep going south, about five hundred feet, there’s an exit right up to the roof.”

“That’s where the helicopter lands,” she said.

Jeremy grabbed Kendra by the arm and hustled her to the back of the room. The small door was knee-high, like the closet in Paul’s lab. “Get in,” he said.

Kendra stooped and looked inside, wincing at the narrow space and shiny, mirror-like walls no more than eighteen inches in either direction. “Are you insane! I can’t fit in there.”

Jeremy eyed her head to toe and pressed both hands flat against her shoulders, as if measuring her dimensions. “Yes, I believe you can.”

Kendra knelt on one knee and stuck her head inside the door. “Absolutely not.”

“Hurry up.” He gave her a soft push. “You’re wasting time.”

“But you’ll never fit.”

“No, I probably won’t,” he agreed. “But as soon as I turn off the power, the ants will go back to the surface and I’ll meet you on the roof.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“I’m not chancing it, Kendra—go!” Jeremy spoke sternly, becoming agitated.